The Reason Of This Peculiarity Is Stated To Be
Imitation Of Their Ancestor Ishak, Who Happened Not To Contract A
Matrimonial Alliance At Such Epoch:
It is, however, a manifest remnant of
the Pagan's auspicious and inauspicious months.
Thus they sacrifice she-
camels in the month Sabuh, and keep holy with feasts and bonfires the
Dubshid or New Year's Day. [20] At certain unlucky periods when the moon
is in ill-omened Asterisms those who die are placed in bundles of matting
upon a tree, the idea being that if buried a loss would result to the
tribe. [21]
Though superstitious, the Somal are not bigoted like the Arabs, with the
exception of those who, wishing to become learned, visit Yemen or El
Hejaz, and catch the complaint. Nominal Mohammedans, El Islam hangs so
lightly upon them, that apparently they care little for making it binding
upon others.
The Somali language is no longer unknown to Europe. It is strange that a
dialect which has no written character should so abound in poetry and
eloquence. There are thousands of songs, some local, others general, upon
all conceivable subjects, such as camel loading, drawing water, and
elephant hunting; every man of education knows a variety of them. The
rhyme is imperfect, being generally formed by the syllable "ay"
(pronounced as in our word "hay"), which gives the verse a monotonous
regularity; but, assisted by a tolerably regular alliteration and cadence,
it can never be mistaken for prose, even without the song which invariably
accompanies it. The country teems with "poets, poetasters, poetitos, and
poetaccios:" every man has his recognised position in literature as
accurately defined as though he had been reviewed in a century of
magazines,--the fine ear of this people [22] causing them to take the
greatest pleasure in harmonious sounds and poetical expressions, whereas a
false quantity or a prosaic phrase excite their violent indignation. Many
of these compositions are so idiomatic that Arabs settled for years
amongst the Somal cannot understand them, though perfectly acquainted with
the conversational style. Every chief in the country must have a panegyric
to be sung by his clan, and the great patronise light literature by
keeping a poet. The amatory is of course the favourite theme: sometimes it
appears in dialogue, the rudest form, we are told, of the Drama. The
subjects are frequently pastoral: the lover for instance invites his
mistress to walk with him towards the well in Lahelo, the Arcadia of the
land; he compares her legs to the tall straight Libi tree, and imprecates
the direst curses on her head if she refuse to drink with him the milk of
his favourite camel. There are a few celebrated ethical compositions, in
which the father lavishes upon his son all the treasures of Somali good
advice, long as the somniferous sermons of Mentor to the insipid son of
Ulysses. Sometimes a black Tyrtaeus breaks into a wild lament for the loss
of warriors or territory; he taunts the clan with cowardice, reminds them
of their slain kindred, better men than themselves, whose spirits cannot
rest unavenged in their gory graves, and urges a furious onslaught upon
the exulting victor.
And now, dear L., I will attempt to gratify your just curiosity concerning
_the_ sex in Eastern Africa.
The Somali matron is distinguished--externally--from the maiden by a
fillet of blue network or indigo-dyed cotton, which, covering the head and
containing the hair, hangs down to the neck. Virgins wear their locks
long, parted in the middle, and plaited in a multitude of hard thin
pigtails: on certain festivals they twine flowers and plaster the head
like Kafir women with a red ochre,--the _coiffure_ has the merit of
originality. With massive rounded features, large flat craniums, long big
eyes, broad brows, heavy chins, rich brown complexions, and round faces,
they greatly resemble the stony beauties of Egypt--the models of the land
ere Persia, Greece, and Rome reformed the profile and bleached the skin.
They are of the Venus Kallipyga order of beauty: the feature is scarcely
ever seen amongst young girls, but after the first child it becomes
remarkable to a stranger. The Arabs have not failed to make it a matter of
jibe.
"'Tis a wonderful fact that your hips swell
Like boiled rice or a skin blown out,"
sings a satirical Yemeni: the Somal retort by comparing the lank haunches
of their neighbours to those of tadpoles or young frogs. One of their
peculiar charms is a soft, low, and plaintive voice, derived from their
African progenitors. Always an excellent thing in woman, here it has an
undefinable charm. I have often lain awake for hours listening to the
conversation of the Bedouin girls, whose accents sounded in my ears rather
like music than mere utterance.
In muscular strength and endurance the women of the Somal are far superior
to their lords: at home they are engaged all day in domestic affairs, and
tending the cattle; on journeys their manifold duties are to load and
drive the camels, to look after the ropes, and, if necessary, to make
them; to pitch the hut, to bring water and firewood, and to cook. Both
sexes are equally temperate from necessity; the mead and the millet-beer,
so common among the Abyssinians and the Danakil, are entirely unknown to
the Somal of the plains. As regards their morals, I regret to say that the
traveller does not find them in the golden state which Teetotal doctrines
lead him to expect. After much wandering, we are almost tempted to believe
the bad doctrine that morality is a matter of geography; that nations and
races have, like individuals, a pet vice, and that by restraining one you
only exasperate another. As a general rule Somali women prefer
_amourettes_ with strangers, following the well-known Arab proverb, "The
new comer filleth the eye." In cases of scandal, the woman's tribe
revenges its honour upon the man. Should a wife disappear with a fellow-
clansman, and her husband accord divorce, no penal measures are taken, but
she suffers in reputation, and her female friends do not spare her.
Generally, the Somali women are of cold temperament, the result of
artificial as well as natural causes:
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