DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0035
SiwAN Customs
15
(b) . Fortunes are also told by means of sand.53 The method is as follows. Rows
of prints are made in the sand with the finger tips. The number of prints is variable;
any number will do. Then subtractions and additions are made, and finally a resulting-
number is obtained, e. g. twelve. There is a book printed in Egypt, and this is consulted
for the purpose of finding out what is written against the number twelve. It may be, e. g.,
“You are going to marry whom you love”, or “You have two friends whom you trust
very much, beware of them”, etc. This book has numbers from one to a hundred, and
against each number something of the sort is written.
(c) . The third way is similar to the second, but instead of prints on the sand a square
is made and letters are written in a circle in it, thus —
The man to whom the fortune is going to be told is ordered to put his finger on one of the
letters. Let us say he puts his on d. They then count the tenth letter from d, the direc-
tion of the arrow being the direction of their counting [i. e. anti-clockwise]. In this present
case, the letter will be a. This b is equal to 2.54 Then suppose the name of the man to
whom the fortune is told is 'Abd Allah. On adding (the numerical value of) the letters
in 'Abd Allah, they will be equal to 142.55 The numbers corresponding to the letters in
the name of the man’s mother are then taken and added in the same way. Let us say
she is called Fatmah; the letters added together come to 135.56 They then add the
values of the letter and these two names like this: 2 + 142 + 135 = 279. They make
next their subtractions and additions and get a result which is final. Let us say it is 53.
They look up this and see what is written against 53 in the book. This will be the fortune
of the person.
53 This is the well-known form of divination called by the Arabs darb-er-raml. For a very full account of it see
Mohammad ibn Omar et-Tunsi, tr. Dr. Perron, Voyage au Darfour, Paris 1845, p. 359 sqq. and 362 sqq.
54 For the numerical value of the Arabic letters see T.P. Hughes, op. cit., p. 3, s. v. “Abjad”; and for the magical
employment of the letters as numbers cf. Ibid., p. 77 sq., s. v. “Da'wah” and E. Doutte, op. cit., p. 174 sqq.
55 The letters spelling “'Abd Allah” have the following values: 'ayn = 70; bd — 2; ddl = 4; alif — 1; Idm = 30;
Idm — 30; hd — 5. The sum of these is 142.
56 The letters spelling “F&timah” have the following values: fd = 80; alif = 1; td = 9; mtm = 40; hd = 5;
The sum of these is 135. The use of the mother’s name rather than the father’s is almost universal in Moslem magic.
It may be reminiscent of an age in which descent was regularly reckoned in the female line, but it is simpler to sup-
pose that its employment is due to a desire to establish the son’s identity in an unquestionable manner. On this cf.
E. Doutte, op. cit., p. 166.
15
(b) . Fortunes are also told by means of sand.53 The method is as follows. Rows
of prints are made in the sand with the finger tips. The number of prints is variable;
any number will do. Then subtractions and additions are made, and finally a resulting-
number is obtained, e. g. twelve. There is a book printed in Egypt, and this is consulted
for the purpose of finding out what is written against the number twelve. It may be, e. g.,
“You are going to marry whom you love”, or “You have two friends whom you trust
very much, beware of them”, etc. This book has numbers from one to a hundred, and
against each number something of the sort is written.
(c) . The third way is similar to the second, but instead of prints on the sand a square
is made and letters are written in a circle in it, thus —
The man to whom the fortune is going to be told is ordered to put his finger on one of the
letters. Let us say he puts his on d. They then count the tenth letter from d, the direc-
tion of the arrow being the direction of their counting [i. e. anti-clockwise]. In this present
case, the letter will be a. This b is equal to 2.54 Then suppose the name of the man to
whom the fortune is told is 'Abd Allah. On adding (the numerical value of) the letters
in 'Abd Allah, they will be equal to 142.55 The numbers corresponding to the letters in
the name of the man’s mother are then taken and added in the same way. Let us say
she is called Fatmah; the letters added together come to 135.56 They then add the
values of the letter and these two names like this: 2 + 142 + 135 = 279. They make
next their subtractions and additions and get a result which is final. Let us say it is 53.
They look up this and see what is written against 53 in the book. This will be the fortune
of the person.
53 This is the well-known form of divination called by the Arabs darb-er-raml. For a very full account of it see
Mohammad ibn Omar et-Tunsi, tr. Dr. Perron, Voyage au Darfour, Paris 1845, p. 359 sqq. and 362 sqq.
54 For the numerical value of the Arabic letters see T.P. Hughes, op. cit., p. 3, s. v. “Abjad”; and for the magical
employment of the letters as numbers cf. Ibid., p. 77 sq., s. v. “Da'wah” and E. Doutte, op. cit., p. 174 sqq.
55 The letters spelling “'Abd Allah” have the following values: 'ayn = 70; bd — 2; ddl = 4; alif — 1; Idm = 30;
Idm — 30; hd — 5. The sum of these is 142.
56 The letters spelling “F&timah” have the following values: fd = 80; alif = 1; td = 9; mtm = 40; hd = 5;
The sum of these is 135. The use of the mother’s name rather than the father’s is almost universal in Moslem magic.
It may be reminiscent of an age in which descent was regularly reckoned in the female line, but it is simpler to sup-
pose that its employment is due to a desire to establish the son’s identity in an unquestionable manner. On this cf.
E. Doutte, op. cit., p. 166.