288 THE NATIVE MANUSCRIPTS iv.ds.
round Abu Delayk with the Shukria. " O Sherif " is addressed to the man to whom Bedowi is telling the tale.
No. 86 used the same words as Bedowi on his deathbed: the Arabic is
iULiJt ji^ ^^^^ *->' OlJUkl^ Ij. For this incorrect form UJL»., i.e.
iJCLs- for ^^JSiX>faf., cp. Appendix 7, where we have lai,-«pj for ^a^oj.
"£■/ Satnih" is Hammad el Sami'h, the fifth of the Abdullab Mdngils of Kerri. Cailliaud (vol. in, p. 96) gives his name correctly, Budge (vol. II, p. 204) and Jackson (p. 105) wrongly as Hamid (or Hamed) el Shemik. His attack on Shendi is again mentioned in No. 226.
75. This feki is reported to have been a Ga'ali and to have been buried near Koz Na'im in the direction of Shendi. Probably he is the son of No. 229, the Awadia being Ga'aliin.
"He embraced. . ." is iui^^! w*aJ^ Jj»»Jlil; and ''Was a follower Of^^ is j^ t^^iaJt J*.ei-I.
The wearing of wool was a sign of asceticism. Whether " Sfifi" is derived from ''suf" (wool) is doubtful (see Hughes, p. 608).
76. This feki is reported to have been buried near J. Arang between Wad Medani and el Kedaref, east of the river Rahad. His descendants are mentioned in D i, cxxv, as among the Ashraf of the Sudan, being descended from Husayn.
For his date see No. 2, where it is mentioned that Sheikh Khogali, who died in 1742, was his contemporary.
77. He was brother of No. 246. The site of his kubba is shown on the map as on the Blue Nile, close south of Khartoum, near Soba. As he was buried elsewhere it is presumably his placenta or afterbirth that is marked by the kubba: cp. No. 78. This custom, which had its place, too, in ancient Egypt, is common in the Sudan, and among the Arab tribes appears to be varied according to whether the river is available or not. In the latter case the afterbirth is buried outside the threshold of the house, close in front of the door. With it, in the case of the Blue Nile tribes, are
buried a date (if available), a thread of red silk, and a seed of corn {dhu-
raia) : a tuft of a few branches {zd'af) from the crest of a palm-tree, still connected together at their base, as they grew, is stuck in the ground over the spot where the afterbirth is buried, the upper half of the tuft projecting visibly. If the river is close at hand the afterbirth is (in the case of the Blue Nile tribes) first placed in a dish and carried round the village by a band of boys and girls, soliciting alms, and then, after being weighted with a stone, thrown into the river together with the date, the silk and the seed. The benefits supposed to arise from the date and the seed are good growth and a long and prosperous life to the child : the benefit from the silk thread (which presumably represents the umbilical cord) is said to be to the mother, it being hoped that no ill effects will follow as a consequence of her not being entirely rid of the afterbirth. A similar custom is said to be observed both at the time of circumcision (the foreskin being substi-
tuted for the afterbirth) and when the boy is married; but in the latter case, instead of being buried or thrown into the river, the date, silk and seed are placed in a forked stick on the right side of the lintel.