Box 7.

Socotran Folklore Tales

Vladimir Agafonof, full address, Moscow. In folklore and fairy tales, Socotra as I knew it in 1970s was no less significant than Perrot's France in the 17th Century CE or Grimm's German states in the romantic times of 19th Century CE. These tales were widespread across Socotran society, among men and women of all ages. There were also some real masters of story-telling, devoting their talents to the safekeeping of this ancient oral "library". Two such tales, which I tape-recorded near the herders cave at Jebel Ma'una, are recounted here. These provide clues to the depth and breadth of contacts between Socotra's past and the ancient civilizations of the wider world; or to the depth of the common roots of the joint Afro-Asiatic cultural tradition. The first tale shares similarities with the old Russian tale of the sister and her little disobedient brother. It tells that when the childrens mother died, their father married a woman who was a ginniye (Socotran pronunciation of Arabic jinniyah). When the wife proposed to her husband to eat the children in the feast, the children fled from home. During their escape, the little brother met another ginniye who turned him into a calf. The calf came to his sister, and when she understood what had happened, she began to cry and her tears flooded the Sultan's date palm plantation. Of course, the Sultan married her and restored her brother to human form using his power. But then the bed servant who wanted to take the sister's place as the Sultans wife, led her lady to a bath in which a giant shark lived. The sister was swallowed by the shark, and the servant took her place as the Sultan's wife. Only the brother saw the delusion. However, no one, including the Sultan, wanted to hear from him. So the brother went to the bath and called on his sister. She answered: What can I do, brother, Here in the shark's paunch? I have a Sultan's boy on the one hip, I have a Sultan's girl on the other! The sister was alive inside the shark, sitting on her knees with her two newborn babies at her hips. Interestingly, in relation to the broader spread of the tale, her hair was styled in a special way into three plaits: the first to be a cushion, the second a cover, and the third in the middle, as a litter. Possible links of this story with other parts of Arabia may be found in Looking for Dilmun (NY, 1969) by the British archaeologist Geoffrey Bibby. In a visit to Tajj, an ancient site on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia near the supposed Gerrha region on the old way from Southern Arabia to Mesopotamia, Bibby described the presence of numerous small statues (most to ca 15 cm height) including fragments of small human figures. Typically, these were of genuflecting naked women with three plaits: one plait on each shoulder and the third plait in the middle of the back, sculptured portraits reminiscent of the Socotran tales heroine. The second tale concerns two brothers who cared deeply for each other. One day the elder brother, who was married, went far away, and his wife wanted his brother. But the brother rejected her advances because he honoured her as he honoured his elder brother. One day the wife heard that her husband had returned. She went home, ripped her clothes, necklet and pantaloon. When her husband arrived, she cried: "Don't enter to me - I am naked!" "Who did it?" the husband asked. "Your brother" the woman said. "What should I do with him?" the husband asked. "You should geld him" she said.

The elder brother went to look for his brother, found him milking his cows, and gelded him with his knife! "What did I say?" the young brother cried "didn't I say no one divides us but a woman!" The beginning of this tale is similar to that of Anupu and Bata, an ancient Egyptian tale from the d'Orbiney Papyrus of the British Museum (Petrie F. Egyptian Tales, I, II. London, 1895; 4th ed. 1926: Vol. 2, p. 36-86). The Egyptian Papyrus with the novel of Two Brothers had been written by the renowned calligraphist Ennana, likely for the Egyptian Crown Prince Seti. References and further reading Bibby, G. 1984. V poiskakh Dil'muna (Looking for Dilmun), Moscow, Nauka, cited from the Russian edition: p. 293). Skazki i povesti drevnego Egipta (Tales and Novels of the Ancient Egypt). Leningrad, Nauka, 1979, pp. 87-102; Comments: pp. 169-170; References: 246-254; Bibliography: pp. 282-286. Vikentjev V.M., 1917. Drevne-egipetskaja povest' o dvukh bratjakh (The Ancient Egyptian Novel of Two Brothers). Moscow, Rak I.V., 1993. Mify drevnego Egipta (The Ancient Egypt's Myths). St. Peterbourg.