Page 36 - Arabian Studies (I)

22 Arabian Studies /

importance put upon earth-spirits and ghosts would seem to be
idiosyncratic. Though snakes are often conceived of as jinn in the
South, yet there still seem to be the tail ends of a snake-cult
perceptible within this culture. Finally, and quite certainly, their
poetic forms arc peculiarly their own, as well as the social ambience
within which they are composed and sung or chanted. This is a
poetry in which the production of something beautiful is a
by-product of the poet's main purpose, which is to convey a message
to an elite who are intelligent and sophisticated enough to
understand these complex, but often very important puzzles,
peculiarly appropriate to a land where the minds of the young must
be sharpened by riddles if they are to survive.

NOTES

1. Of the Batahirah, who speak a Mehri dialect but are not sharlf I have no
personal experience. Cf. B. Thomas, ‘Anthropological Observations in South
Arabia’ in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, LXII, Jan.—June
1932, 83 ff. and his ‘Four Strange Tongues from South Arabia - The Hadara
Group’ in the Proceedings of the British Academy, XXIII, passim.
2. Cf. W. Dostal,D/e Beduinen in Siidarabien, Vienna 1967, 11 -20.
3. Confusingly called ‘tent’ (Ar. xemah, Mehri and Harsusi xemet).
4. Abbreviated as H, M, S and S respectively where this is convenient.
5. Cf. Johnstone, Eastern Arabian dialect studies, Oxford, 1967 for a general
description of this kind of dialect.
6. For this dialect type cf. Reinhardt, Ein arabischer Dialekt gesprochen in
‘Oman und Zanzibar, Stuttgart and Berlin, 1894.
7. Compare the Omani Bedouin Arabic (OA) firig and firTj, pi. firgan. Cf.
also Musil, The Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins, NY 1928, 78.
8. Op. cit., 34.
9. Cf. below on the discussion of poetical language of the Dhofaris.
10. In the present situation ‘even they carry arms’.
11. These people are probably identical with the Qara. On this poetical
language, see below and Johnstone, ‘The Language of Poetry in Dhofar’, BSOAS,
xxxv, 1,1972,1-17.
12. The people are now Muslims.