First Footsteps in East Africa. Sir Richard Francis Burton

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СКАЧАТЬ The sigh would take the place of thy laughter and thy scorn.

      "Let me weep for the sin that debars my soul of rest,

       The tear may yet avail—all in vain I may not mourn! [22]

      "Woe! woe to thee, Flesh!—with a purer spirit now

       The death-day were a hope, and the judgment-hour a joy!

      "One morn I woke in pain, with a pallor on my brow,

       As though the dreaded Angel were descending to destroy:

      "They brought to me a leech, saying, 'Heal him lest he die!'

       On that day, by Allah, were his drugs a poor deceit!

      "They stripped me and bathed me, and closed the glazing eye,

       And dispersed unto prayers, and to haggle for my sheet.

      "The prayers without a bow [23] they prayed over me that day,

       Brought nigh to me the bier, and disposed me within.

      "Four bare upon their shoulders this tenement of clay,

       Friend and kinsmen in procession bore the dust of friend and kin.

      "They threw upon me mould of the tomb and went their way—

       A guest, 'twould seem, had flitted from the dwellings of the tribe!

      "My gold and my treasures each a share they bore away,

       Without thanks, without praise, with a jest and with a jibe.

      "My gold and my treasures each his share they bore away,

       On me they left the weight!—with me they left the sin!

      "That night within the grave without hoard or child I lay,

       No spouse, no friend were there, no comrade and no kin.

      "The wife of my youth, soon another husband found—

       A stranger sat at home on the hearthstone of my sire.

      "My son became a slave, though not purchased nor bound,

       The hireling of a stranger, who begrudged him his hire.

      "Such, alas, is human life! such the horror of his death!

       Man grows like a grass, like a god he sees no end.

      "Be wise, then, ere too late, brother! praise with every breath

       The hand that can chastise, the arm that can defend:

      "And bless thou the Prophet, the averter of our ills,

       While the lightning flasheth bright o'er the ocean and the hills."

      At this hour my companions become imaginative and superstitious. One Salimayn, a black slave from the Sawahil [24], now secretary to the Hajj, reads our fortunes in the rosary. The "fal" [25], as it is called, acts a prominent part in Somali life. Some men are celebrated for accuracy of prediction; and in times of danger, when the human mind is ever open to the "fooleries of faith," perpetual reference is made to their art. The worldly wise Salimayn, I observed, never sent away a questioner with an ill-omened reply, but he also regularly insisted upon the efficacy of sacrifice and almsgiving, which, as they would assuredly be neglected, afforded him an excuse in case of accident. Then we had a recital of the tales common to Africa, and perhaps to all the world. In modern France, as in ancient Italy, "versipelles" become wolves and hide themselves in the woods: in Persia they change themselves into bears, and in Bornou and Shoa assume the shapes of lions, hyenas, and leopards. [26] The origin of this metamorphic superstition is easily traceable, like man's fetisism or demonology, to his fears: a Bedouin, for instance, becomes dreadful by the reputation of sorcery: bears and hyenas are equally terrible; and the two objects of horror are easily connected. Curious to say, individuals having this power were pointed out to me, and people pretended to discover it in their countenances: at Zayla I was shown a Bedouin, by name Farih Badaun, who notably became a hyena at times, for the purpose of tasting human blood. [27] About forty years ago, three brothers, Kayna, Fardayna, and Sollan, were killed on Gulays near Berberah for the crime of metamorphosis. The charge is usually substantiated either by the bestial tail remaining appended to a part of the human shape which the owner has forgotten to rub against the magic tree, or by some peculiar wound which the beast received and the man retained. Kindred to this superstition is the belief that many of the Bedouins have learned the languages of birds and beasts. Another widely diffused fancy is that of the Aksar [28], which in this pastoral land becomes a kind of wood: wonderful tales are told of battered milk-pails which, by means of some peg accidentally cut in the jungle, have been found full of silver, or have acquired the qualities of cornucopiae. It is supposed that a red heifer always breaks her fast upon the wonderful plant, consequently much time and trouble have been expended by the Somal in watching the morning proceedings of red heifers. At other times we hear fearful tales of old women who, like the Jigar Khwar of Persia, feed upon man's liver: they are fond of destroying young children; even adults are not ashamed of defending themselves with talismans. In this country the crone is called Bidaa or Kumayyo, words signifying a witch: the worst is she that destroys her own progeny. No wound is visible in this vampyre's victim: generally he names his witch, and his friends beat her to death unless she heal him: many are thus martyred; and in Somali land scant notice is taken of such a peccadillo as murdering an old woman. The sex indeed has by no means a good name: here, as elsewhere, those who degrade it are the first to abuse it for degradation. At Zayla almost all quarrels are connected with women; the old bewitch in one way, the young in another, and both are equally maligned. "Wit in a woman," exclaims one man, "is a habit of running away in a dromedary." "Allah," declares another, "made woman of a crooked bone; he who would straighten her, breaketh her." Perhaps, however, by these generalisms of abuse the sex gains: they prevent personal and individual details; and no society of French gentlemen avoids mentioning in public the name of a woman more scrupulously than do the misogynist Moslems.

      After a conversazione of two hours my visitors depart, and we lose no time—for we must rise at cockcrow—in spreading our mats round the common room. You would admire the Somali pillow [29], a dwarf pedestal of carved wood, with a curve upon which the greasy poll and its elaborate frisure repose. Like the Abyssinian article, it resembles the head-rest of ancient Egypt in all points, except that it is not worked with Typhons and other horrors to drive away dreadful dreams. Sometimes the sound of the kettledrum, the song, and the clapping of hands, summon us at a later hour than usual to a dance. The performance is complicated, and, as usual with the trivialities easily learned in early youth, it is uncommonly difficult to a stranger. Each dance has its own song and measure, and, contrary to the custom of El Islam, the sexes perform together. They begin by clapping the hands and stamping where they stand; to this succeed advancing, retiring, wheeling about, jumping about, and the other peculiarities of the Jim Crow school. The principal measures are those of Ugadayn and Batar; these again are divided and subdivided;—I fancy that the description of Dileho, Jibwhayn, and Hobala would be as entertaining and instructive to you, dear L., as Polka, Gavotte, and Mazurka would be to a Somali.

      On Friday—our Sunday—a drunken crier goes about the town, threatening the bastinado to all who neglect their five prayers. At half-past eleven a kettledrum sounds a summons to the Jami or Cathedral. It is an old barn rudely plastered with whitewash; posts or columns of artless masonry support the low roof, and the smallness of the windows, or rather air- holes, renders its dreary length unpleasantly hot. There is no pulpit; the only ornament is СКАЧАТЬ