Wa Nawar hade (and I will teach you something).
Repeated twice by each man.
Shufi jebbi di (Look! I bring you this).
Once only by each man.
Ya ho debbi di (Oh! Ho! I pack this with it).
Twice by each man.
Ma saffi an (Do not arrange any more for me).
Once only as the last pack is put in place.
During the march the men often burst out singing, but on these occasions it was in a shrill falsetto and quite different from the loading chanties, which were in their normal tone of voice. I was never able to catch the words of any songs to the camels on the march, and the tunes, being in a different scale from that used in Europe, were still more baffling. Once or twice, however, during a long night march, I heard Abdulla, who was said by the men to have come from somewhere Abyssinia way, start crooning to himself a song, in what sounded like the European scale. It was a low, plaintive ditty that bore a faint resemblance to the old British song, “The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington.” I tried to pick up the tune, but being distinctly “slow in the uptake,” where anything musical is concerned, I foolishly asked him to sing it over, so that I could get hold of it. But Abdulla was evidently very sensitive on the subject, and never sang again. Even to my European ears it was a distinctly pretty song, very different from the discordant squalling one usually hears from the Arabs.
The camel drivers’ singing is supposed to help their charges on their way, and does seem to have some effect in this direction—presumably because the beasts know from experience that, if the singing fails to take effect, it will be followed up by a whack from the kurbaj.
The Egyptians are a superstitious race, and the inhabitants of the oases are probably the most credulous of all Egyptians. I was able to learn a good deal about the native beliefs and occult practices from the Coptic doctor in Dakhla, Wissa—previously mentioned.
One day he got on to the subject of the Coptic priests, and, being a Copt himself, probably knew what he was talking about. He said that they were all very good astrologers, but were very cunning and would never own to knowing anything about the subject.
They work by means of the signs of the Zodiac, used in conjunction with tables. He himself had one of the tables, but was unable to use it, as he had not got the key. There are a number of these tables, each compiled by one of the great philosophers—Solomon, Socrates and so on, after whom it is called.
The tables and key are generally written in Coptic. By means of the key an answer to a question can be got from the table in rhyme, which he said is generally correct. His family owned an answer drawn up for his grandfather in which Arabi’s rebellion and the British occupation of Egypt were foretold—presumably in very vague terms.