Silé Saajo was
looking for his lost cow when he heard the following:
“My voice, my
voice calls out: I am here, I am Koumen. The heaven smiles above my head. The
earth trembles underfoot. My very breath makes the branches sway. I am at the
entrance to my turf. This is the first clearing, constructed from the branching
web of the marvellous kelli and the virtuous
nelɓi, famous for its healing.[1]
The over-grown delɓi bush[2]
has spread across the latticework of my enclosure. Its rare flowers smile and
sing for my herd of cattle. Sing for my herd, birds of the trees…
 |
| Counterclockwise: nelbi (crossberry), delbi (gardenia) & kelli (jackalberry) on the pastoral path |
Hurr! Hurr! Hurr!
Fita! Firaa! Fiti! Fiti! Firi.[3]
The males and the females possess in their loins the sperm of calves and bull-calves, future cows and bulls, a brilliant demonstration of my good fortune.[4]
Come on out fat
cattle and full-bodied cows... Jump over the spells. It pleases me that you will
graze in the grasslands and drink from the watering hole of the “seventh sun”.[5]
I am Koumen of many forms: a whirlwind raising the dust, a flood drowning the
high grasses. As for my proficiency, I take hold of a man and plunge him into
the watering hole of the sun where my cattle drink. I whisper into his right
ear the true-secret name of the cow. It is a magical word which multiplies the
cattle and ensures the milking is good. I am Koumen. I let my tongue suck from
my nursling. I communicate to him by means of my saliva the spell that
fertilises the cow.[6]
Guéno knows me.[7] From up high, he made me an eternal child. The earth obeys me because I have descended from heaven through the air at the moment when the oceans were boiling, pregnant with the motherlands which gave birth to pastures and crops. I am Koumen, the Magician.[8] I transform all animals, the twisted and the humped back, into fat and nice-looking cattle. What is more, when I whistle to an angry herd, they turn into domestic livestock or else disappear into the foliage.
Shepherd! Would
you like to hear me? Hunter! Would you like to see me? Get yourself treated by
ear doctors and eye doctors, the former residing in the “black termite mound” and the latter under
the “single baobab tree”[9]
planted in the mysterious land where the stars are whitened before being
embedded into the sky and sent into orbit in space. I know the initial
temperature of the oceans, the nature of the stars and the purpose of their existence.
I know the secret of the moon when as a growing crescent it pierces the clouds,
or when “round as straw” it lights up the spring nights and extols the virtues
of butter and milk.[10]
Enter, while leaving… On leaving, enter…”[11]
In this manner, Koumen
was speaking to himself when Silé Saajo took him by surprise as he lay under a
great tamarind tree at the edge of the Toumou pond in Jolof.[12]
Silé Saajo grabbed hold of Koumen. He imagined him to be an abandoned child
whose mother had been devoured by wild beasts, but he saw on him the
half-greyed beard of a patriarch. He was overwhelmed with amazement.
Koumen said to
him, “Silé Saajo! I am Koumen the Magician. I initiate men gradually to the
example of the genies of Solomon who temper steel.[13]
I am Koumen. I sit on the bull’s neck, my two feet between its horns. The beast
goes about its grazing without minding or disturbing me. I shall make a second
appearance in the valley of Boukoul.[14]
But before that, carry me on your back and let us go visit the domain of Guéno,
my Master and yours…
Silé Saajo! Make
yourself at home. You are here at the threshold of my domain. Tell me what you want from Koumen,
Master of magic rites?”
“I desire to
know what will make me a better pastor and increase my skills and knowledge of
the pastoral way.”
“I would not have walked with you another step had you asked for
anything else.”[15]
The people
inside do not go outside and those outside do not go inside. The area is
guarded by an old man wearing nothing but for his black hair.[16]
Silé Saajo
perceived a light rising out of an urn full of water. A snake, facing this urn,
was playing melancholic tunes on a flute carved out of the hollow of a sorghum
stalk pierced with seven holes to modulate its sound.[17]
“O fire!” hissed
the reptile, “Why are you not extinguished by the water? Is it that the sounds
that I draw from my flute do not produce a gust to diminish the force of the
flame and kill it?”
“Lie down, serpent!” Koumen commanded.
Silé Saajo
overcame the abode of the snake with fear suppressed at the bottom of his
heart.
Images: (A) Maxine Stussy, The Guardian
(B) Evelyn Pickering de Morgan, Mercury.
Images: (A) Maxine Stussy, The Guardian
(B) Evelyn Pickering de Morgan, Mercury.
[1] These two trees are respectively the white
cross-berry (Grewia tenax Fiori / Grewia
betulifolia Jussieu) and the African jackal-berry / West African ebony tree
(Diospyros mespiliformis Hochst).
They have mythical status on the pastoral path, associated with the female and
male respectively, and they are the two trees from which the shepherd’s staffs
are made.
[2] This is Gardenia erubescens Stapf. or Hochst or some other variety of
gardenia bush.
[3] This incantation is untranslatable: fitaa (to be ejected, to come out), firaa (to fly off), fiti (to be ejected, thrown out), filti (to have surrounded), firi (to be blown off). It evokes perhaps the skewering of a cock which precedes any important sacrifice
and has an important divinatory function: the bonds of the dying animal as well
as its final position once it is dead are interpreted to determine if the
sacrifice to be offered after its immolation will be accepted and beneficial.
[4] It is a hermaphrodite beast, called ndurbeele because of its gender and fadaletodde because of the flecks on its
skin.
[5] Each sun corresponds to a universe akin to
our own star system as well as to one of the aspects of the initiation. The
seventh is the sun of highest degree.
[6] This is a metaphor for the initiation
process. The initiator puts his tongue for a moment in the mouth of the
initiate pupil who sucks it, next he gives the teaching, transmitting therefore
first saliva which tranfers bodily fluid, then the “word”.
[7] Guéno denotes God. He is supreme,
immortal, omniscient and omnipresent. He is also called by the name of Doundari.
Though ever present, he remains invisible and does not show himself on earth.
[8] Koumen is an Elder being with natural
wisdom, like the character Tom Bombadil in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.
[9] The black termite mound, out of which the
jackal-berry tree (nelbi) often
grows, and baobab are both medicinal, associated with the healing of hearing
and seeing it would seem from this tale. When combined, they also have
divinatory associations.
[10] The three days around the full moon are
known as “milky days” (nyalɗe kosamaaje).
[11] This incantation refers to initiates who,
having left the first stage without having broken any prohibitions, return
again to instruct those that follow after. Those who would like to penetrate
the path of knowledge without going through the successive levels of initiation
are excluded.
[12] The tamarind tree is a symbol of life and
regeneration. It is a common ingredient in all medicines. To encourage the ill to get better, it is said: “Catch the roots
of tamarind” (nangu ɗaɗi ɗammi).
[13] The Fulɓe make constant allusion to events at the time of Solomon,
who appears in legends and historical traditions as a master and source of
certain initiations. This passage shows the association of the Fulɓe with the art of blacksmiths. During his
pastoral trips, Koumen is sitting on the head of a bull, whose two horns
symbolize a hakille spirit and a wonkii or yonki soul, from wonde
(to be) and yonde (to be worthy).
[14] The valley of Boukoul is in modern-day
Senegal.
[15] If the initiate asks for anything apart
from knowledge, then he is not able to enter the first clearing, symbolising
the entry into initiation, nor of course any of the others.
[16] This man at the threshold symbolises one
who “knows but one word, but can keep it secret (in darkness)”. The hair is a
symbol of his masculinity. Its blackness despite his age symbolises the
perennial nature and unity of the science of initiation.
[17] The snake in this passage is Caanaba who
guards access to knowledge: he plays a flute with seven holes which represent
the range and unity of sounds. The four elements at the basis of creation are
represented in this scene by the urn (“earth”) containing “water” topped by a
“fire” on which the snake breathes a melancholic “air”. If Silé Saajo had not
been worthy of knowledge, the water or the breath of the snake would have put
out the fire. The stability of the four elements demonstrates that the
initiation can be conducted on him. The snake will therefore lie down under Koumen’s
command. Meanwhile, just as a snake sheds its skin each rainy season, Silé Saajo
must also “shed his skin” on the spiritual plane. One who finds a snake’s
moulted skin rubs it twice over his body: the first time to protect against the
bite of the mythical snake “coiled around what is perishable” and the second
time to evolve spiritually.
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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