[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.
