Page 30 - Arabian Studies (I)

16 Arabian Studies I

brother. The dead (anutayn) there had got tired of his weeping and
in exasperation one had told him his brother was not dead but had
been thrown into a death-like trance by magic. The witch had dug
him up and transported him to India and had changed him into a
lamb (her kobeTi kabs). He went to India and traced the witch, being
advised meanwhile to come to her from behind and get hold of her
by the breasts. When the flocks came home he recognised one lamb
as his brother and he having the upper hand of her, she was forced to
change the lamb back into a human being. The men concerned in this
happening died only recently. The man under the spell had been
conscious of what was going on but unable to move when he was
being taken to India. He had been able to see but it was as if he were
seeing everything through water.
In another true case of shape-changing a woman lived with her
son, two daughters and a cat. Unknown to anyone the cat was a
jinniyyah (ke'ydt), well-disposed to the young man. The young man
was not so well liked by his own womenfolk however because he
liked to have his home away from other folks and the women wanted
more company. The mother proposed that one of them should
change into a snake and ‘eat’ him (nehom tayt menln tektlleb heh
rlfit we-teheh).1 9 The cat heard all this however and went with him
when the man next took out his cattle at night (hebdxvr agdyg
abkarhe). When the snake came up to him he was asleep but the
jinniyyah killed it without him even wakening. In the morning the
cat had taken the form of a beautiful young woman and explained
the matter to him, but she could not stay any longer now that he
knew who she was. He went home and buried his mother2 0 and
married off his sisters.
In Socotra also a witch (<di-neker) is able to assume the form of a
singing bird (pi. za’hoyten), or a snake. The shape-shifter is called
metred21, a word which occurs in the SAE texts with the meaning
‘fugitive’. There is a marked reluctance to talk about such things in
real life, but they are mentioned fairly frequently in stories.
Throughout this whole area the jinn are conceived of as taking
animal shapes, particularly the forms of donkeys, cats and snakes.
Treasure trove is an important fantasy theme in everyday converse
and in popular literature. Such treasures always have a snake
guardian, generally admitted to be a jinni. As in other cultures in
which the snake plays some part, the reptile is not always malign. In
folk literature there are huge predatory snakes that have to be fed a
maiden every night before they are slain by local St. Georges, but
there are also snakes that are on the side of the angels. In one story a
hero has his penis cut off and is left to perish, but a large snake