THE SAND ORACLES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16923, 23 December 1922, Page 15

THE SAND ORACLES.

STRA NGE FORTHNE-TELLERS. Fortune-telling and divination are everywhere at home in Africa; they are c juried on in the .Eastern Soudan by a manipulation of sand (dharber-ramie). 'I his is the art of reading the secrets of the future and predicting distant events hem signs and Impressions made with the lingers at haphazard on loose sand. In Kordofan and Darfur nobody will start on a long journey or undertake any matter of importance without first consulting the local sand-oracle upon liiv. result of his enterprise. An Arab merchant who had travelled long in the Darfur relates the following incident referring to the art ol reading in the sand. It had come to the ear of the Turkish Governor of a province that an old man in the neighbourhood v. as astonishing everybody by the exactness of his divinations. The Governor ordered this man to he brought before I nn, as he wished to submit him to a test. As soon a* his messengers had gone ho had two hares placed by tho side of l ur under a “ tahagn ” (a large basketlike covermade of differently coloured reeds and used for covering food). The messengers, however, did not find the • -hi man at home. Hi* nephew, who, but a boy. was already well known for his cleverness in the mysterious craft. • ffered to go to the Governor in liis or He’s place, and returned with the ii or so ngers. The Governor looked at him with disbelieving eye* and said. “ Alv son. if von .an read secret* in the sand, tell mo what i* under this tabaga.” The youth took up the sand wliieh he had brought with him in a corner o] hi* gown. He sat himself on the c round, made hi* manipulations and s-gns, and replied, after shor . meditation, “There, uneb'r the tabaga. is wool like the wool of newly-born camels, there arc also oars like those of dr nkeys; if my uncle were here, he v ouhl snv that there are hares under"caV Ili!,t