Page 26 - Arabian Studies (II)

16 Arabian Studies II

death, but they seem to earn him the amused approval of the
listeners. Perhaps the aim is also didactic, mental exercises in the
stretching of cunning to its furthest theoretical limits. This may give
the young a useful lesson in a society where lying is not acceptable,
but where the constructive withholding of information is admired.
One of these exaggerated vows comes up in slightly different form
in both a HarsusT and a Mehri folk-tale. In HarsusT the protagonist is
the fox, the totem animal of the Harasls.
A donkey has unwisely allowed the fox to enter her stomach to
drink water after he has given her a guarantee of protection (weigh).
He refuses ‘to be entangled with those mouth-made vows’ and eats
part of the ass so that she dies with him imprisoned inside her. After
unsuccessful attempts to extricate himself he vows to God: if a mist
comes and moistens the back passage of the ass and I get out alive, I
shall fill a valley with blood and a valley with milk’ ('am wekot
gellet, we-te'.rot Sit de-hay ret, we-xerogek hoh sell, serehdw emyeles
dor eh w e-sere haw emyeles esxdf).
The fox is delivered, and by sending a half-blind old lady and her
daughter on a false errand fulfils his vow, milking all their goats and
cutting all their throats, propping them on their hind legs against the
trees to mislead the old woman when she comes back so that he can
cheat her into giving him her jewellery.
In the Mehri story a man goes into a cave to drink, when a rock
falls and blocks the mouth of the cave. He makes a vow to God to
flood a valley with blood and one with milk if he gets out of there
(we-Sendor h-arehmon yehadheb richer dove we-neher esxdf, ham
fetok men bawmeh).
He cheats a woman goat-herder out of her jewellery by telling her
someone is giving jewellery to ladies who have none, and sends her off.
When she is away he collects her flocks and floods one valley with
milk and another with blood, and thus fulfils his vow, but in such a
way as to make it devoid of any meaning.
Perhaps enough has been said to show that both oaths and vows
are still of some importance in a society in which the written word
has not replaced the spoken in contracts between men. In such
societies the spoken word has power, once brought into existence
with the c.orrect formulae and the proper solemnity, and sometimes
also when they are uttered in the place appropriate for oaths or
vows. A broken oath can doubtless itself bring harm on the
transgressor, but as the texts show, society has further punishments
for the oath-breaker, which amount to making him an outcast.
This has always been so in Arabian society; but now that society is