MY SOMALI BOOK 97 



the sunset devotions which Abdilleh never missed, but 

 some of the men never remembered. 



In some of the observances enjoined by the Koran, 

 however, all were equally strict. None would touch 

 a pig, none would taste 

 alcohol, none would eat 

 the flesh of an animal 

 which had not been made 

 halal. 



In respect of the latter 

 ceremony, however, the 

 Somali is more accom- 

 modating than many Mahomedan shikaris elsewhere, 

 who consider that the neck of the animal must be cut 

 close under the throat : this is the general idea among 

 uneducated Mussulmans but is not warranted by the 

 Koran, which permits the severance of the jugular vein 

 at any spot ; the point of real importance being that 

 the blood must be made to flow by a Mussulman hand 

 before the breath of life has entirely departed, to the 

 accompaniment of an invocation to the name of Allah. 

 The sportsman who means to have his trophy 

 mounted naturally objects to an ugly gash spoiling an 

 antelope's neck ; which, by the way, should always be 

 cut as long as possible, for nothing detracts more 

 from the beauty of a head on a shield than an absence 

 of neck. The Somali having been educated, in the 

 first instance by Col. H. G. Swayne with the assistance 

 of a complaisant Mullah, he always gets his meat 

 provided he can satisfy his conscience that he is in 

 time with the knife. In parts of India, on the other 

 hand, your Mussulman shikari's share of stag or buck 



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