The Story of
the Bet-Arbaj
The Bet-Arbaj are the
brothers(1) of the Mänsas; they are all descendants of Arabi(2). The
village of the Bet-Arbaj was at Debbur, and the villige of the
Mänsas at Hajgat.
The Bet-Arbaj were high-born
and brave and said to the Mänsas: »We are the high-born ones and men
of the land, therefore give us tribute: give us at every
"Cross-feast" (3) barren cow, and furthermore at every Easter a skin
full of boiled butter. And if ye do not give us all this, we shall
plunder you and destroy you». The Mänsas said: »We are not going, to
give you this tribute». But a man who was called Wekenaj was on that
occasion with them. And he intervened between them all in order to
reconcile them, .and said to them: »Do not destroy one another on
account of this thing». And to the Mänsas he said: »Give what they
told you to». And the Mänsas said: »Let them renounce the one thing;
either the cow or else the skin of butter». And Wekenaj came to the
Bet-Arbaj, mediating, and said: »Remit the one thing to them». But
they refused.
And Wekenaj was at heart with
the Mänsas and counselled with them and said to them: »lf I make you
victorious over the Bet-Arbaj, what will ye give to me?» And the
Mänsas said: »We will establish an ordinance in thy honour». And he
returned to the Bet-Arbaj and said: ,Yea, they accept. Whither
should they go (to escape) from you? But appoint a meeting at the
river Shital and let no one take weapons; come with your sticks
only, and take with you every one of your noblemen and your chief,
and come,,. »Good», said the Bet-Arbaj.
Footnotes
(1) i. e. the near kindred.
They call one another - brother» even to the 5th and 6th generation.
(2) See introduktion p. 10.
(3) The cross-feast, on the
24th of September.
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Thereupon came Wekenaj to the
Mänsas and said to them: »We have arranged a meeting, and, having
hastened before them down to Shital, bury ye your weapons in the
sand there. Afterwards, when they have come to you, let each one of
you seat himself upon the burying place of his weapons. And after
the Bet- Arbaj have come to you, say to them: 'Remit one of them to
us; both, of course, it is impossible for us to give'. And I shall
say to you: Before ye said, 'Good', did ye not? And answer ye:
'Yes'. And then when I have said: 'Yea, the agreement has become
idle talk for me, I will mount my mule and go my way from you: and
when ye have become very hot, dig up your weapons and kill them
therewith». And the Mänsas said: »Good». On the day for the meeting
the Mänsas went down from Hajgat to Shital (and buried their weapons
there), and then every one of them seated himself upon the burying
place of his
weapons. Afterwards came the
Bet-Arbaj in their wooden shoes (1) without weapons, and with only a
small stick in their hands, together with their chief. And when they
had seated themselves,´ Wekenaj said to the Mänsas: »Ye have
accepted, have ye not?» And the Mänsas said: To thee we said that we
accept, but let them remit to us one part of the tribute». And the
Bet-Arbaj said to them: »Give us both parts of the tribute». And
Wekenaj said to them: »Well, since ye (on the one hand) have changed
your lips(2), nothwithstanding that ye said before: 'We accept'; and
ye (on the other hand) refuse to remit, then our agreement is not
fulfilled.» And he flung himself upon his mule and rode away. And
the Bet-Arbaj said to the Mänsas: »Because ye refuse to accept, we
depart». When they had spoken thus, while their chief mounted (his)
mule, the Mänsas, having dug up their weapons, fell upon them and
defeated them and put an end to theim, striking them down, even to
their village.
But a small part of them, who
fled, having gone over Afluk, came to Ansaba. And there they live,
to this very day, as dependants. And the mother of those who live in
the territory of'
Footnotes
(1) Wooden shoes of different
kinds are chiefly used during the rainy season in the highland,
July-September, and otherwise
only in moist weather as at Christmas.
(2) i. e. have not kept your
word.
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the Mänsas, was a woman of the
Ad-Bula (1). And the Ad-Bula saved them, and after they had lived
together with them, their family having been weakened, they became
the dependants of the latter, and are subject to them even to this
very day. And in this way the Bet-Arbaj have, by evil guidance, been
ruined, and the Mänsas inherited all that they had owned. And as for
Wekenaj, the Mänsas established this ordinance: Of every slaughtered
cow(2) he may take the heart, and when they plunder and go to rob,
he shall be the scout, and of the cows which they get, they shall
give him one. And this custom remains for him (3) even to this very
day
