Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/520

 456 The Bafitzi Element in Sivahili Folklore.

cut or ground flat.^'' In the tale of Makame the vipande has become an ordinary amulet, designated by its Arabic name of hirizi, just as the figure is brought to life by the viwallini "reading over it." The verb soniea used in this sense always, I believe, implies the Koran, which appears to be known on the Swahili coast chiefly as a grimoire. I have not been able to identify the bird called kuriLmbiza, which Makame sends to fetch the amulet. Krapf says that it is " a bird which sings a long and curious tune," and adds that it is called jicpi in the Mrima dialect. On turning up jiipi, we find a vague suggestion that it may be "an ousel," which does not help matters much. The reduplication of the main incident is worth noting ; it incorporates a very faint recollection of another story which occurs in M. Junod's collection as "Les Trois Vaisseaux" and in Dr. Velten's as " The Bride of the Three Brothers." There is no trace of the bird in the Subiya version, where the Hare goes himself to the chief's kraal, beating his drum as he goes. I have only space to note in conclusion that Dr. Velten's Prosa und Poesie contains H adit hi y a Kigwe ("The Story of a String," i.e. the story of an amulet), which combines this motive with a different one, — probably Arab and found in a story given by Biittner under the title " What sort of people women are," — in which a dead wife, brought back to life by her husband's devotion, denies all knowledge of him.

A. Wef^ner.

^" I think that the kind I mean is a cone-shell. I may add here that an old woman I knew in the same district used to wear round her neck an ivory object which she called " moyo uuanga " (my life), and which no persuasion would induce her to part with. It was no doubt an ordinary protective amulet, but I have never seen another like it ; it was a hollow peg of ivory about three inches long, the upper end pierced for strings, and shaped some- thing like a curved ninepin.