DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0243
KOROSKO TO ABOU SIMBEL. 225
sign or shadow of moving creature. Only one young
woman, bearing strange voices talking a strange tongue,
peeped out suddenly from a half-opened door as we went
by ; then, seeing me look at the baby in her arms (which
was hideous and had sore eyes), drew her veil across its
face and darted back again. She thought I coveted her
treasure and she dreaded the Evil Bye.
All at once we heard a sound like the far-off quivering
cry of many owls. It shrilled—swelled—wavered—dropped
—then died away, like the moaning of the wind at sea.
We held our breath and listened. We had never heard
anything so wild and plaintive. Then suddenly, through
an opening between the houses, we saw a great crowd on a
space of rising ground about a quarter of a mile away.
This crowd consisted of men only—a close, turbanod mass
some three or four hundred in number ; all standing quite
still and silent; all looking in the same direction.
Hurrying on to the desert we saw the strange sight at
which they were looking.
The scene was a barren sand-slope hemmed in between
the town and the cliffs and dotted over with graves. The
actors were all women. Huddled together under a long
wall some few hundred yards away, bareheaded and
exposed to the blaze of the morning sun, they out-
numbered the men by a full third. Some were sitting,
some standing; while in their midst, pressing round a
young woman who seemed to act as leader, there swayed
and circled and shuffled a compact phalanx of dancers.
Upon this young woman the eyes of all were turned. A
black Cassandra, she rocked her body from side to side,
clapped her hands above her head and poured forth a
wild declamatory chant which the rest echoed. This
chant seemed to be divided into strophes, at the end of
each of which she paused, beat her breast, and broke into
that terrible wail that we had heard just now from a
distance.
Her brother, it seemed, had died last night: and we were
witnessing his funeral.
The actual interment was over by the time we reached
the spot; but four men were still busy filling the grave
with sand, which they scraped up, a bowlful at a time,
anil stamped down with their naked feet.
The deceased being unmarried, his sister led the choir
sign or shadow of moving creature. Only one young
woman, bearing strange voices talking a strange tongue,
peeped out suddenly from a half-opened door as we went
by ; then, seeing me look at the baby in her arms (which
was hideous and had sore eyes), drew her veil across its
face and darted back again. She thought I coveted her
treasure and she dreaded the Evil Bye.
All at once we heard a sound like the far-off quivering
cry of many owls. It shrilled—swelled—wavered—dropped
—then died away, like the moaning of the wind at sea.
We held our breath and listened. We had never heard
anything so wild and plaintive. Then suddenly, through
an opening between the houses, we saw a great crowd on a
space of rising ground about a quarter of a mile away.
This crowd consisted of men only—a close, turbanod mass
some three or four hundred in number ; all standing quite
still and silent; all looking in the same direction.
Hurrying on to the desert we saw the strange sight at
which they were looking.
The scene was a barren sand-slope hemmed in between
the town and the cliffs and dotted over with graves. The
actors were all women. Huddled together under a long
wall some few hundred yards away, bareheaded and
exposed to the blaze of the morning sun, they out-
numbered the men by a full third. Some were sitting,
some standing; while in their midst, pressing round a
young woman who seemed to act as leader, there swayed
and circled and shuffled a compact phalanx of dancers.
Upon this young woman the eyes of all were turned. A
black Cassandra, she rocked her body from side to side,
clapped her hands above her head and poured forth a
wild declamatory chant which the rest echoed. This
chant seemed to be divided into strophes, at the end of
each of which she paused, beat her breast, and broke into
that terrible wail that we had heard just now from a
distance.
Her brother, it seemed, had died last night: and we were
witnessing his funeral.
The actual interment was over by the time we reached
the spot; but four men were still busy filling the grave
with sand, which they scraped up, a bowlful at a time,
anil stamped down with their naked feet.
The deceased being unmarried, his sister led the choir