Barakaamong the Bedouin of Cyrenaica

Abstract

'When God gave baraka from yonder, He gave it in a hundred parts. Eighty-five parts He put into the wool on the backs of sheep. Ten parts He put into grain. Five parts were for honest traders, but, since there are none, those five parts are running loose in the world.' Such was the account of the distribution of divine blessing offered by a Bedouin in Cyrenaica. I should add that it is not proverbial. It does not include all vehicles of baraka, but it does hit on two of the most important, which will be discussed first, and it is cited for that reason, as well as for the charming way it was put. When sheep are sheared, the task is done ritually. It is one of the few annual ceremonies which bring a little diversion into the life of the Bedouin. The younger able-bodied men of several camps in a locality band together to shear the flocks of each camp in turn. They gird themselves in lengths of cloth, which normally would only be worn by women. Some round up the sheep, some keep the tea going, others shear, while others stack the fleeces. All the time that the young men are engaged in these various tasks, they sing, at the tops of their voices, songs relating to the increase of the flocks but also bearing a double meaning of a lewd sexual kind. Except on the occasions of weddings (away from the tents of the camp) and at funerals (when dirges are chanted), young men never sing in the hearing of their elders or anywhere near camp, much less in the tents. At shearing, however, the shyness of shame-to translate their idiom-gives way to defiance. Senior men of the camps serve the shearers with quantities of sugar and tea for the tea-making that goes on incessantly. They smile benignly or even burst into laughter at the lewdness of the ditties, in marked contrast to their behaviour at weddings, when they pretend not to hear the singing. Anyone who passes the tent where the shearers are working calls out a greeting, but it is a special greeting, not used at other times: 'On you be light'. Special too is the response: 'Light, and not the darkness of the grave'; in Arabic the two formulas rhyme. The fleece is taken off the sheep as intact as possible, save that a tuft of wool is left behind the head. Wool contains baraka; to remove it all would mean removing all the baraka, and this in turn might mean 'the wool may never grow again'. It is appropriate here to stress that the attention given to the shearing of sheep is not accorded to the shearing of any other animal. Goat hair is clipped regularly, but without ceremony. Owners of goats clip their own; a few today, a few more tomorrow, merely with the help of two or three sons and nephews, working together near the camp. Camel hair is also removed, as and when necessary, and in much the same fashion as with goats. Although some of the hair of both camels and goats is used in making a tent-top and for other purposes, both lack baraka. After the shearing of a flock is completed, its owner takes one of the sheep and sacrifices it to provide a meal for the helpers. As with all sacrifices, in the first instance it is 'to the face of God'. Then comes the statement of intent: for