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.
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