DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0244
226 A TIIOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE.
of mourners. She was a tall, gaunt young woman of the
plainest Nubian type, with high cheek-bones, eyes slanting
upward at the corners, and an enormous mouth full of
glittering teeth. On her head she wore a white cloth
smeared with dust. Her companions were distinguished
by a narrow white fdlet, bound about the brow and tied
with two long ends behind. They had hidden their neck-
laces and bracelets and wore trailing robes and shawls
and loose trousers of black or blue calico.
We stood for a long time watching their uncouth dance.
None of the women seemed to notice us; but the men made
way civilly and gravely, letting us pass to the front, that we
might get a better view of the ceremony.
By and by an old woman rose slowly from the midst of
those who were sitting and moved with tottering, uncertain
steps toward a higher point of ground, a little apart from
the crowd. There was a movement of compassion among
the men ; one of whom turned to the writer and said,
gently: " His mother."
She was a small, feeble old woman, very poorly clad.
Her hands and arms were like the hands and arms of a
mummy, and her withered black face looked ghastly under
its mask of dust. For a few moments, swaying her body
slowly to and fro, she watched the grave-diggers stamping
down the sand ; then stretched out her arms and broke
into a torrent of lamentations. The dialect of Derr* is
strange and barbarous ; but we felt as if we understood
every word she uttered. Presently the tears began to
make channels down her cheeks—her voice became choked
with sobs — and, falling down in a sort of helpless heap,
like a broken-hearted dog, she lay with her face to the
ground, and there stayed.
Meanwhile, the sand being now filled in and mounded up,
the men betook themselves to a place where the rock had
given way and selected a couple of big stones from the
debris. These they placed at the head and foot of the
grave and all was done.
Instantly—perhaps at an appointed signal, though wo
saw none given—the wailing ceased; the women rose; every
tongue was loosened; and the whole became a moving,
* The men hereabout can nearly all speak Arabic; but the women
of Xubia know only the Kensee and Berberee tongues, the first of
which is spoken as far as Korosko,
of mourners. She was a tall, gaunt young woman of the
plainest Nubian type, with high cheek-bones, eyes slanting
upward at the corners, and an enormous mouth full of
glittering teeth. On her head she wore a white cloth
smeared with dust. Her companions were distinguished
by a narrow white fdlet, bound about the brow and tied
with two long ends behind. They had hidden their neck-
laces and bracelets and wore trailing robes and shawls
and loose trousers of black or blue calico.
We stood for a long time watching their uncouth dance.
None of the women seemed to notice us; but the men made
way civilly and gravely, letting us pass to the front, that we
might get a better view of the ceremony.
By and by an old woman rose slowly from the midst of
those who were sitting and moved with tottering, uncertain
steps toward a higher point of ground, a little apart from
the crowd. There was a movement of compassion among
the men ; one of whom turned to the writer and said,
gently: " His mother."
She was a small, feeble old woman, very poorly clad.
Her hands and arms were like the hands and arms of a
mummy, and her withered black face looked ghastly under
its mask of dust. For a few moments, swaying her body
slowly to and fro, she watched the grave-diggers stamping
down the sand ; then stretched out her arms and broke
into a torrent of lamentations. The dialect of Derr* is
strange and barbarous ; but we felt as if we understood
every word she uttered. Presently the tears began to
make channels down her cheeks—her voice became choked
with sobs — and, falling down in a sort of helpless heap,
like a broken-hearted dog, she lay with her face to the
ground, and there stayed.
Meanwhile, the sand being now filled in and mounded up,
the men betook themselves to a place where the rock had
given way and selected a couple of big stones from the
debris. These they placed at the head and foot of the
grave and all was done.
Instantly—perhaps at an appointed signal, though wo
saw none given—the wailing ceased; the women rose; every
tongue was loosened; and the whole became a moving,
* The men hereabout can nearly all speak Arabic; but the women
of Xubia know only the Kensee and Berberee tongues, the first of
which is spoken as far as Korosko,