Page 33 - Arabian Studies (I)

Folklore and Folk Literature in Oman and Socotra 19

In Dhofar wizards and witches are to be especially feared for their
evil designs on children. In a country where infant mortality is high
this is understandable. The children of the well-to-do are most envied
and therefore attract evil intentions more than others. When a
woman bears a child she will fumigate with frankincense (M. teheno-
dex be-sehez d-amegrat). A wizard will not go near a place where he
can smell frankincense.
Sorcerers have pools beside which they gather at night, and
especially on a Thursday night Caser d-agema’t)2 8. The most famous
pool of this kind in Dhofar is called Arm in Mehri, Erin in Sheri.
Anyone who has a fever is thought to be bewitched (M. meshayr,
S mesher) and taken for treatment to healers (M. metawwa’ayn) or
soothsayers (M. mesenioten, S. esmti).29
The names given to the various spirits and things of the night show
rather more insistence on earth-spirits than do comparable Arab
beliefs. The most highly stratified spirit society would seem to be
that of Socotra, and we have good accounts of the activities of these
spirits Ona'rhor)30 in the SAE texts. There are air-spirits (di-
minmoh), but a commoner theme is the luring of people, especially
men, underground by an earth spirit (hadbehiyoh).
One of the most usual MH. words for a spirit is ke'i (pi. keyoy)
which can be related to kd ‘place’, but is better compared with
Ar. qa‘ ‘earth’. Another common MH. word is geberi which again is
to be related to dust or soil. Although in many cases the terms jinn
and keyoy are used interchangeably, there is in fact a traceable
difference. The word keyoy can be used to mean the earthbound
ghosts of the dead. These travel about at night and are often in little
communities like ordinary people. It can also be remarked that
unlike the jinn these earth-spirits are almost always malevolent, only
one exception, in the case of the buried brother, having been noted
above.
In Sheri the word ke'i is used, but it is not the common one. The
words which are used are sebri and 'aferet. The etymology of the
word sebri (pi. sebro’ f. sebret/sebreti) does not seem to be connected
with a word for ‘earth’, but it is largely confined in meaning to the
ghosts of the dead who have to be placated.31 The word 4aferet3 2 is
certainly connected with idea of ‘earth, soil’. In S. itself 'afor means
‘to till the soil’ and 'ofer ‘brown, red’. It is probably also connected
with the Arabic 7frit; indeed it would seem reasonable to suggest
that the Arabic word has been borrowed from the modern S. Arabian
languages along with the t marker of the feminine gender. In Sheri
moreover it is said of a person who is afflicted by the evil eye that
‘he has in him an [evil] eye from the soil’ (denu btif 'in men erz),