Further on, there lived a
shepherd standing on one foot and supported by a staff. This was the pastor of
the black herd.[1] Rooted
to the spot and with pounding heart, Silé was wondering to himself: “Who is
this shepherd? What is this herd?”
 |
| Black Herd (vintage photo, scanned by vintagecowboy) |
Koumen turned at once towards Silé and said to him: “Greetings to you, Silé. Make yourself at home in
my domain. You are welcome to partake in whatever pleases you: through the
blessings of milk and butter.”
So saying, Koumen struck a
cluster of vines that had the air of a closed gateway.[2]
The branches twitched and opened. Instead of leading to a clearing or a
thicket, Silé Saajo found himself in front of a pond and a watering hole.
Here, recounted Koumen, the genies
who were pastors of Solomon, came to see their reflections in the tranquil
waters of the pond and they washed themselves in the watering-hole.[3]
Thus, they increased the power of their eyes. They readily came to see the
future like an ordinary man sees his face in the mirror.
“O Silé! take some mud from the
pond,” came the deceiving cry of a great frog, croaking:
“faabuga! faafaabuga! Buga fundundur!”[4]
 |
| Fat chunk frog (Angela Rizza, ig: canvasbird) |
The frog enquired:
“O traveller to Foroforondou!, what besides me have you seen out of the
ordinary?”
Silé replied, “I have seen the
herd that the shepherd with spindly legs and tanned complexion grazes. I have
seen a snake which plays the flute before a dancing flame over an urn of water
filled with a yellow-breasted canary.”
The frog resumed, “The snake with
the flute is celebrating a master who does not indulge in wealth, nor in the
possession of elemental forces. The creeper is held back by the force of fire
and water, the one which threatens to burn it and the other which threatens to
drown it. Go to the highly honoured Foroforondou and be her suckling. But do
not speak again to anyone.”
Koumen
commanded again, “Silence, frog!”
[1] The black bovine (wane
or banel) is the symbol here of
occult knowledge. Just as Silé Saajo has crossed the dark forests, he must pass
through the space covered by the black herds. Once he has had the courage to do
this, Koumen salutes him: Silé has just become a living being, a man with soul,
he has become a “person”. He has passed his first initiation. Although
identifying ideas in different wisdom traditions can lead to a mistaken
understanding, the words of Jeanne de Salzmann in “First Initiation”, Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man
and His Teaching, New York (1996) seem very fitting:
“The first requirement, the first condition, the first
test for one who wishes to work on himself is to change his appreciation of
himself. He must not imagine, not simply believe or think, but see things in
himself which he has never seen before, see them actually. His appreciation
will never be able to change as long as he sees nothing in himself. And in
order to see, he must learn to see; this is the first initiation of man into
self-knowledge.”
[2] This is a curtain formed of climbing foogi shrubs (Saba / Landolphia
senegalensis). They represent patience, flowering one year and only bearing
fruit the next, but also flexibility and suppleness for they embrace and wrap
around other plants.
[3] One can look at one’s reflection in a watering hole (nawel) and one can bathe in a pond (nawre) — the pond is larger. To do the
reverse by washing in the watering hole and looking at one’s reflection in the
pond is to seek to realise the eternal.
[4] The frog here is trying to tempt Silé and distract
him from the right path, but Silé does not listen to him and Koumen intervenes.
The frog is the guardian of sanctuaries for initiation.
A. Hampâté Bâ & G. Dieterlen (1961)
Text in French: http://www.webpulaaku.net/defte/ahb/kumen/
Amadou Hampâté Bâ
Introduction
English Translation:
First Clearing
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