Page 28 - Arabian Studies (II)

18 Arabian Studies II
NOTES

1. The Arabic numbers give this formula a certain formality, but they also
occur in place of the Mehri numbers in a high proportion of phrases involving
dates and times.
2. Cf. E. Graf, Das Rechtswesen der heutigen Beduinen, Walldorf-Hesscn,
n.d. (about 1950), 186. Other (Ar.) terms are rifig (rafiq) and xuwi, which Graf
also discusses (see the reff. in his index).
3. It is interesting that the Gaelic phrase fo gheusaibh which meant in older
times ‘under vows’ has come to mean nowadays only ‘charmed, bewitched’. In
other cultures also the fact that a man is under a vow sets him apart from other
men.
4. It seems to me likely nevertheless that his account is based on a story
believed to be true by his fellow countrymen.
5. This story goes from narrator to narrator and from time to time in a
manner typical of oral literature. I have however kept explanatory interpolations
to a minimum.
6. He does not use the word ‘to make a vow’ which is sendor, but says ‘I have
a vow upon me’, viz. lioh ley neder
7. ‘He and his walking stick’ (hah w-amerl$dseh). The stick is no doubt
regarded as a sure indication that it is b. Hud and not some masquerader.
8. The word bay net usually means ‘miracle’, but here ‘AIT Musallam glossed it
to mean ‘illness’. Perhaps in context it can be taken as ‘something unpleasant
brought about by miraculous powers’.
9. This is said to the people on the boat it seems to me, rather than to the
thief.
10. Gifts of food and cloth are used by the guardians of the tomb to feed
and clothe themselves and visitors. Money is used for labour at the site and other
charitable purposes, such as the provision of wells for travellers.
11. Viz. herbatieny which elsewhere in this narrative means ‘our fellow-
travellers’, cannot mean this here.
12. In this context mesawged should probably be translated ‘the proper
places for oaths to be taken’.
13. I omit here a short discussion of the N. term for ‘tombs’, viz. kebrTn as
against the S. term l$ebur.
14. According to Thomas, ‘Four strange tongues from South Arabia’,
Proceedings of the British Academy XXIII, the Bil Haf, a non-sharTf tribe Mehri
—
in speech are the servants at the shrine of JauharT at Umm al-Tabbakh. For
further information about Hud, see R. B. Serjeant, ‘Hud and the other
pre-Islamic prophets of Hadramawt, Le Museon LXVII, Louvain 1974, 127ff.
The tomb of bin Hud is in WahidT country and it seems likely that the narrator
really has in mind the tomb of Hud which is nearer to the land of the Mahrah.