Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/305

 Collectanea. 287

tion of the two " horns," or short spikes, on the head of the Lafaa, or horned cerastes viper, a snake which runs to about two feet long.

In the same district there is a class of beings called " the people of the sand " (Touareg Ahl-et-Trab, Arab Kel-es-Souf). They claim possession of everything below the surface of the soil. They are of a mischievous disposition and drink up the water of the wells when they see a thirsty traveller approaching, and bite off the roots of the plants and so cause them to die and reduce the amount of pasturage for camels. They sometimes take a bodily shape and come above ground, i)ut never show themselves to more than two persons at once. So said one of the Hoggar (Touareg) herdsmen previously mentioned. In Bissuel's Les Toua- reg de /'6^;/^i-/ (jourdan, Algiers, 1888), there is (p. 32) a story of two Arab brothers, extremely attached to each other, who were travelling together in the desert. In the evening they halted and killed a sheep for their supper. The spot where they had halted was a sand-dune district with no vegetation. While looking for some fuel to cook the meat, one of them found a Touareg tomb. The Touareg usually mark their graves by placing a slab of wood or stone (called Shouahed, or " witness "), upright in the ground, at the head and foot of it, with the name of the deceased upon one of the slabs. The slabs in this case were of wood. Thinking these would make good fuel, the elder brother sent the younger to pull them up. He was unable to do so, for at every wrench which he gave to the slabs a heartrending groan proceeded from the grave. Thoroughly scared, he returned to his brother and told him what had happened. The latter laughed at him for his fears and set out to fetch them himself He was met when he attempted to do so with the same heartrending sighs and groans. But he was not to be easily daunted. " These slabs are of no use to you," he called out to the deceased Touareg : " I want them to cook my supper, and I mean to have them." He wrenched them out and brought them back to the camp. Find- ing his brother fast asleep he set to work to cook the dinner so as to be ready for his awakening. Just as the meal was ready and the cook was about to arouse his brother, the form of the dead Touareg emerged from the grave and came and sat down between the two brothers, claiming that as he had supplied the means of cooking the food, he had a right to a share in the supper. The