And the Yibir never came out.
Now the Yibir had a son who came to the Sheikh and said, "What's this I hear about you and my father? Is it true?"
"It is quite true, my boy," said the Sheikh.
"Well now you have killed him, what about the compensation, dia, that is coming to me for his death?"
The Sheikh agreed the boy ought to receive some compensation, and further that as he had killed the sorcerer in the interests of the community the community ought to pay. So he decreed, this holy man, that whenever a Somal married he was to pay a skin to a Yibir as part of the dia due to that people for the killing of their ancestor. Further, whenever a male child was born its father was to pay another skin. Now in those days there was no money, that was why the Sheikh said the Yibirs were to be paid in skins, but nowadays it is more convenient to give them money. "Four rupees—six rupees, something like that."
So, when a baby boy is born a Yibir comes along with a long stick, which he balances on the back of his hand. Then the stick runs along his arm and balances on his shoulder. When the father of the baby sees this, he knows the man before him is a Yibir, without doubt, and he pays him, "four rupees—six rupees, something like that." After some incantations the Yibir goes to the bush and cuts some tiny sticks, which he sews up in a bit of skin. He is very particular as to the number of these sticks, they must be more than two and less than four, and when they are made up in the skin he hands them to the child's parents, who tie the package on baby's arm. It is called a "makran," and if any other Yibir come along the mother shows it to them and they know they will not get anything more for that baby. But if a new baby boy comes, and the parents cheat the Yibir out of his dues, something dreadful is bound to happen.
Now as Gulaid Abokr's wife has just presented him with a bouncing boy, and as Gulaid and all his friends have spent more this New Year than they can afford, and are out of cash, and as, after a careful search, I find the cook has left me with four rupees in hand, it would be a pity if anything were to happen to the baby, so I lend the money.
Mahomed then confides a tremendous secret to me.
"I tell you, sir, what I am going to tell you now is a fact, and I am prepared to pass my oath on the Koran that it is true. This same Yibir came to my house last night and said, 'Let me tell you your luck!' I said, 'Good!' He told me to take a new loin cloth and four rupees from my box and accompany him to another house. I went with him, taking the articles, for I feared a trick. When we entered a house he said, 'Spread the cloth on the ground.' I spread it on the ground, and he said, 'Now put the four rupees on it.' I put them on.
"He then took a thread from the cloth I was wearing and rolled it into a ball, which he kept in the palm of his hand. He said, 'If your luck is good this thread will turn into a lock of human hair. If it is bad it will turn into a human eye.' I watched him very closely, for I still feared a trick. He closed his hand, opened it quickly, and, 'Wallahi,' the thread had turned into human hair. Then he picked up the new cloth and the four rupees saying, 'As your luck is good this is my commission.' Now what do you think of that, sir?"