Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/87

Rh able like man's fetishism or demonology, to his fears; a Badawi, 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 Badawi, by name, Farih Badaun, who notably became a hyena at times, for the purpose of tasting human blood. 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. Kindred to this superstition is the belief that many of the Badawin have learned the languages of birds and beasts. Another widely-diffused fancy is that of the Aksar, which in this pastoral land becomes a kind of wood: wonderful tales are told of battered milk-pails which, by means of some peg accidently cut in the jungle, have been found full of silver, or have acquired the qualities of cornucopiæ. It is supposed that a red heifer always breaks her fast upon the wonderful plant, consequently much time and trouble have been expended by the Somal in watching the morning proceedings of red heifers. At other times we hear fearful tales of old women who, like the Jigar Khwar of Persia, feed upon man's liver; they are fond of destroying young children; even adults are not ashamed of defending themselves with talismans. In this country the