Another
Supposed Cure For The Same Disease Is A Pig Dressed In A Similar
Manner, Which Meat, Although Forbidden By The Koran, May Be Taken
Medicinally.
The flesh of the crocodile is eaten greedily, being
supposed to promote desire.
There are few animals that the Arabs
of the Nubian provinces will refuse; the wild boar is invariably
eaten by the Arab hunters, although in direct opposition to the
rules of the Koran. I once asked them what their Faky would say
if he were aware of such a transgression. "Oh !" they replied,
"we have already asked his permission, as we are sometimes
severely pressed for food in the jungles; he says, 'If you have
the KORAN in your hand and NO PIG, you are forbidden to eat pork;
but if you have the PIG in your hand and NO KORAN, you had better
eat what God has given you.'"
This is a charming example of simplicity in theological
discussion that might perhaps be followed with advantage in
graver questions; we might cease to strain at the gnats and
swallow our pigs.
I had an audience of a party of hunters whom I had long wished to
meet. Before my arrival at Sofi I had heard of a particular tribe
of Arabs that inhabited the country south of Cassala, between
that town and the Base country; these were the Hamrans, who were
described as the most extraordinary Nimrods, who hunted and kiled
all wild animals, from the antelope to the elephant, with no
other weapon than the sword; the lion and the rhinoceros fell
alike before the invincible sabres of these mighty hunters, to
whom as an old elephant-hunter I wished to make my salaam, and
humbly confess my inferiority.
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