DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0209
The Kababish, a Sudan Arab tribe
147
Women whose first children die in infancy adopt various means to ensure the life
of their later progeny, the underlying idea being apparently to avoid the Evil Eye. Thus
little boys were seen with the hair of the head shaved, leaving a number of tufts, and
we were told this was done because their elder brothers had died young. In the genea-
logical table will be noticed one Koko, son of Bashom. Koko is a Nuba name, and in
answer to the question as to the reason of giving a Nuba name to an Arab child, we were
told that all his elder brothers had died during infancy, therefore his father gave him “a
slave’s name”.
Motherless babes may be fed by a foster mother, but this is not usual. Generally
the grandmother will take charge of the child, and feed it on goat’s milk and sugar. If
too young to be fed by hand, the kids would be killed and the babe would suck the goat’s
udder, a cloth being tied round the udder when the goat is sent out to graze, as a protec-
tion from the Evil Eye. Infants are suckled for two years, during which time they are
given no other food. If a woman becomes pregnant while nursing, the child at her breast,
so it is believed, will not suffer in health unless the unborn child be of the opposite sex,
in which case it would sicken. In any event the child would be weaned.
The first shaving of a child’s head is done ceremonially, and is called 'ikka. On no
account may the father perform this ceremony. The boy or girl when seven months old
is taken by its mother to the tent of one of its paternal uncles, who shaves the child’s head
and makes a sacrifice, usually a sheep. The child’s head is not anointed with the blood
of the sacrifice, but is rubbed with fat (di/m). The mother brings a large dish of bread
with her, and both the mother and paternal uncle eat of this as well as of the sheep, though
they eat separately. The uncle makes a present to the mother, which she keeps for her-
self. The hair from the child’s head is saved and twisted into a girdle which the child
wears round its waist until it drops off, when no further attention is paid to it. The
child wears a white cap for the first week after the 'ikka.
The custom was observed among the sedentary Arabs of Northern Kordofan also,
but in a less definite form. Among the Dar Hamid and Gawama'a any respected man
(including the father) may shave a child’s head for the first time, and a present, generally
of ewes, is made to the child, but no present is given to the mother.68
At Merakha on Jebel Katul among the so called Arabs — really arabised negroes —-
it was generally the father who shaved the child’s head and killed a sheep, and the hair
was worn as a belt by the child, but the word 'ikka seemed unknown in this connection,
although an old woman said that the first suf (wool) of any animal was called 'ikka.
68 Much the same practice is observed among the Bisharin of the Red Sea coast, though there the underlying
idea seems to be different. The hair from the first shaving is saved and twisted into a belt for the child, but the
father may shave the child only if both his parents are alive, otherwise another man must be found who fulfils this
condition.
147
Women whose first children die in infancy adopt various means to ensure the life
of their later progeny, the underlying idea being apparently to avoid the Evil Eye. Thus
little boys were seen with the hair of the head shaved, leaving a number of tufts, and
we were told this was done because their elder brothers had died young. In the genea-
logical table will be noticed one Koko, son of Bashom. Koko is a Nuba name, and in
answer to the question as to the reason of giving a Nuba name to an Arab child, we were
told that all his elder brothers had died during infancy, therefore his father gave him “a
slave’s name”.
Motherless babes may be fed by a foster mother, but this is not usual. Generally
the grandmother will take charge of the child, and feed it on goat’s milk and sugar. If
too young to be fed by hand, the kids would be killed and the babe would suck the goat’s
udder, a cloth being tied round the udder when the goat is sent out to graze, as a protec-
tion from the Evil Eye. Infants are suckled for two years, during which time they are
given no other food. If a woman becomes pregnant while nursing, the child at her breast,
so it is believed, will not suffer in health unless the unborn child be of the opposite sex,
in which case it would sicken. In any event the child would be weaned.
The first shaving of a child’s head is done ceremonially, and is called 'ikka. On no
account may the father perform this ceremony. The boy or girl when seven months old
is taken by its mother to the tent of one of its paternal uncles, who shaves the child’s head
and makes a sacrifice, usually a sheep. The child’s head is not anointed with the blood
of the sacrifice, but is rubbed with fat (di/m). The mother brings a large dish of bread
with her, and both the mother and paternal uncle eat of this as well as of the sheep, though
they eat separately. The uncle makes a present to the mother, which she keeps for her-
self. The hair from the child’s head is saved and twisted into a girdle which the child
wears round its waist until it drops off, when no further attention is paid to it. The
child wears a white cap for the first week after the 'ikka.
The custom was observed among the sedentary Arabs of Northern Kordofan also,
but in a less definite form. Among the Dar Hamid and Gawama'a any respected man
(including the father) may shave a child’s head for the first time, and a present, generally
of ewes, is made to the child, but no present is given to the mother.68
At Merakha on Jebel Katul among the so called Arabs — really arabised negroes —-
it was generally the father who shaved the child’s head and killed a sheep, and the hair
was worn as a belt by the child, but the word 'ikka seemed unknown in this connection,
although an old woman said that the first suf (wool) of any animal was called 'ikka.
68 Much the same practice is observed among the Bisharin of the Red Sea coast, though there the underlying
idea seems to be different. The hair from the first shaving is saved and twisted into a belt for the child, but the
father may shave the child only if both his parents are alive, otherwise another man must be found who fulfils this
condition.