Gamarala

“ Then the Sannyāsi says, “I will perform a protective spell (ārakshāwa) for children to be born, if you will give me the lad who is born first of all.” The Gamarāla promised, “I will give him.”
Afterwards the Gamarāla having come back, when a little time had gone she bore a boy. After the boy became somewhat big he planted a flower tree. The Gamarāla having told the Sannyāsi to come gave him the boy; the Sannyāsi having taken him went away. The lad says to the Gamarāla, “Should I die the flowers on the flower tree will fade.” Younger than this lad [the Gamarāla’s wife] bore yet a boy. ”

“ Tell that to the Washerman.”
Then the men having gone, told the Washerman, “Washerman, the buffalo cow that you are causing to graze eats by stealth [in our rice field] . Attend well to its grazing.” [327]
The Washerman said, “What are you telling me? Doesn’t the front half belong to the Gamarāhami? Isn’t it the Gamarāhami who must attend to the grazing?”4
The Washerman having come to the Gamarāla’s house, quarrelled with the Gamarāla [over it] . The Gamarāla became very angry.
Afterwards, the Gamarāla went to institute a lawsuit against the Washerman [on account of these matters] . ”

“ Then the Gamarāla, taking the coconut, struck it very hard on the head of the Tambi-elder-brother, thinking it was a stone.
The man of the house thought [before this] , “The water in the coconut is insufficient for the deity. He will be ascending [and leaving us] .” After he had quickly opened the door, and gone out to get more water to give him, the Tambi-elder-brother sprang from the corn loft, breaking his head, and ran away. ”

“ Gānē or gāna = gahana, multitude; compare kaḍawal gānēma, vol. i, p. 86, line 17. ↑
3 Issara weccahama. ↑
4 Um̆balat ekkenek magē ina gāwin allā-ganillā (hon. pl.) ; gāwin, “near,” is commonly used for “at” or “by,” as in ata gāwin allā­gana, seizing the hand (vol. i, p. 127, line 23) . ↑
[Contents]
No. 228 The Gamarāla who ate Black Fowls’ Flesh and Hīn-aeṭi Rice
In a certain country there were a Gamarāla and a Gama-Mahagē, it is said. There was a paramour for this Gama-Mahagē, it is said. ”

“ By his harangues Justus inflamed the minds of many of the people, persuading them to take arms, and then he went out and set fire to the villages that belonged to Gadara and Hippos, on the border of Tiberias, and of the region of Scythopolis.
Gamala persevered in its allegiance to the Romans, under the persuasion of Philip, the son of Jacimus, who was governor of the city under King Agrippa. He reminded the people of the benefits the king had bestowed on them, and pointed out how powerful the Romans were, and thus he restrained the zeal of the citizens. ”

“ There is one question which we have to consider, and that is food; as to flesh, we shall have it in abundance. There will be many flocks of goats, belonging to those in Gamala, straying among the mountains without an owner; therefore of goats' milk and flesh we can take abundance, but there will be a scarcity of grain. I have some money with me, with which we can purchase it at Abila, and the villages. As for Jabez Galaad, it is too close to Gamala; and the Romans will probably ascend the hill and destroy it, or place a guard there. ”

“ Gamara was the scene of a perpetual reign of terror, exercised from above by the Khan, and from below by the mob, reinforced by the hordes of theological students, and between these two forces the mere moderate man was crushed out of existence or frightened into silence. A whisper against the orthodoxy of even a high official would send a raging crowd to attack his house or to tear him limb from limb in the public street, and the truth of the rumour would only be inquired into afterwards, if at all. ”

“ But, all reservations admitted, the work of Gomara illustrates a most important and interesting period of history, and, if he was constrained to treat his hero leniently, he nevertheless had access to a mass of original information, by which he profited with excellent results. His style is agreeable and scholarly, revealing a writer of wide culture, gifted with unusual knowledge of astronomy, geography, and history. ”

“ He is of opinion that the Arabs, from a similarity of sound, may have interpreted the native name Gamaro, which was applied to the Abyssinian mountains lying south-west of Gaka, and in which the Godjeb (or White Nile) takes its rise, to signify a mountain of the moon (Djebel al-Kamar) ; so that Ptolemy himself, who was familiar with the intercourse existing between Abyssinia and the Indian Ocean, may have adopted the Semitic interpretation, as given by the descendants of the early Arab immigrants. ”

“ Unlike the others, he did not run away from the old man as he approached, but came quite close to him and began to shake his own chadar. The result was that a live lizard sprang out of it on to the old man's body, ran down his back and off towards the jungle. Sudden fright made the poor man shiver from head to foot, to the great amusement of the other boys, who shouted with glee. Before Jaganath had gone far, cursing and swearing, the gamcha on his shoulder suddenly disappeared, and the next moment it was seen on the head of the new boy, transformed into a turban. ”

“ And, in the height of his sufferings, the mariner bestowed a kind of dramatic poignance upon them, by laughing aloud at poor Gamaliel’s fat, pale face; by striding to the door, flinging it wide, and disappearing into the wintry darkness.
[12]
CHAPTER II
The quest of the King
IT was not easy for the landlord to recover of his terror. Your rogue is a nervous creature. How often does he anticipate his doom! When the wind sighs through the branches, he hears the creakings of the gallows tree. Long after his visitor’s departure, Gamaliel felt two strong hands upon his throat. ”

“ On departing, da Gama gave the traitors a broadside, which did considerable damage to their village of thatch.
On the 1st of April, da Gama gave to an island which he discovered the name of Açoutado, in commemoration of a sound flagellation which was there administered to the pilot for telling him it formed part of the continent,—upon which he confessed that his purpose in thus misrepresenting the case was to wreck and destroy the ships. On the 7th, they came to the large island of Mombassa, where they found rice, millet, poultry, and fat cattle, and sheep without tails. ”

“ The king himself not being able to read or write, made a cross as his signature to the treaty.
M. de Lajaille has not given us a description of the island in the Gambia which was ceded to the French by this treaty, nor has he said any thing of the manners and religion of the people. From the accounts, however, which I procured, it appears that the island is very small and unhealthy: there are scarcely six acres of soil capable of cultivation; all the rest is a vast swamp. The trade which we carry on consists in slaves and wax. ”

“ A war with the Moors was now begun. Gama perceived that their jealousy of European rivals gave him nothing to expect but open hostility and secret treachery; and he knew what numerous colonies they had on every trading coast of the East. To impress them, therefore, with the terror of his arms on their first act of treachery, was worthy of a great commander. Nor was he remiss in his attention to the chief pilot who had been last sent. ”

“ Gamalla.—The Gamallas are a class of toddy-drawers, and distillers and vendors of arrack in the Telugu country and are supposed to be Īdigas who have bettered themselves, and separated from that caste. Both Gamallas and Īdigas worship the deity Kāttamayya. At the census, 1891, some returned Īdiga as their sub-division. In the Cuddapah district some toddy-drawers style themselves Asilivāndlu. Possibly the Īdiga, Gamalla, and Asili toddy-drawing classes only represent three endogamous sections of a single caste. ”

“ The Garamantes are so called from Garama, which is the capital of their Kingdom, and the castle of which standeth between Inenense and Ethiopia, where is a fountain which cooleth with the heat of the day, and groweth hot with the cold of the night. Ethiopia is over against Egypt and Africa, on the southern part thereof; from the east it stretcheth over against the west even to the Ethiopian Sea. ”

“ Her lands uncultured, and her sons untrue; Ungraced with all that sweetens human life, Savage and fierce, they roam in brutal strife; Eager they grasp the gifts which culture yields, Yet naked roam their own neglected fields."
And though even Africa has considerably changed since the year of grace 1497, when "daring Gama" went "incessant labouring round the stormy Cape," Mr. Punch thought of that great gloom-shrouded Equatorial Forest and its secular savage dwarf-denizens, and mused how much there was yet for our modern Gamas to do in the Dark Continent. ”

“ Gama, he said, was an exiled pirate, who had marked his course with blood and depredation. If he were not a pirate, still there was no excuse for giving such warlike foreigners any footing in a country already supplied with all that nature and commerce could give. He expatiated on the great services which the Moorish traders had rendered to Calicut; and ended with a threat, that all the Moors would leave the zamorim's ports and find some other settlement, if he permitted these foreigners any share in the commerce of his dominions. ”

“ The king of Melinda interrupted Gama. He had often heard traditions among his people of the Spirit of the Cape. He was one of the race of Titans who loved Thetis, and was punished by Jove by being transformed into this promontory.
Gama continued: "Again we set forth, and stopped at a pleasant coast to clean our barks of the shell-fish. At this place we left behind many victims of the scurvy in their lonely graves. Of the treason we met with at Mozambique and the miracle that saved us at Quiloa and Mombas, you know already, as well as of your own bounty." ”

“ I will relate that of which I myself was an eyewitness, facts which I know to be true, and will pay no attention to the contradictory statements of those who merely write from hearsay, for truth is a sacred thing. I will therefore say no more on this head, though I could, if I liked, say a good deal; and merely add, that there are good grounds for believing that when Gomara was writing his history, he had been deceived by false information: with him, every circumstance is made to turn to the glory and honour of Cortes, while no mention is made of the other brave officers and soldiers ”

“ Now all those Galileans who, after the taking of Jotapata, had revolted from the Romans, did, upon the conquest of Taricheae, deliver themselves up to them again. And the Romans received all the fortresses and the cities, excepting Gischala and those that had seized upon Mount Tabor; Gamala also, which is a city over against Taricheae, but on the other side of the lake, conspired with them. This city lay upon the borders of Agrippa's kingdom, as also did Sogana and Seleucia. ”

“ The Gambia river possesses a draught of 30 feet right up the river to a position of twenty miles beyond Bathurst, providing altogether forty miles of deep waterway. I am told this is the only safe anchorage for a British fleet in West Africa, safe, that is, from attack. This little colony of 4000 square miles is contentedly following on in the path of progress, its inhabitants are loyally and affectionately attached to the British Crown. Only one thing troubles the population of Gambia and that is the periodic rumours of a transfer to another Power. ”

“ Yea, I see them even now sitting in a room of the great palace! Patatheites paces up and down, his pale, sharp countenance wreathed in a triumphant smile. Gaumata, the earless one, sits on the throne, uneasy and afraid. He wears a turban low down on his head after the fashion of the Arabs, but it is to conceal his lack of ears. He resembles Bardya, but he is Gaumata. He has shown himself to the people, who have acclaimed him. He awaits uneasily the return of messengers sent to all parts of the earth. In him the Magi triumph and [240] Ahriman, that old serpent, the devil, rules. ”

“ Gambo, Querlaouen, and Malaouen were firm believers in it.
Both men and women would come back to their villages and assure the people that they had had a glimpse of the creature. He looked so old he could hardly walk. His hair was perfectly white, and he was terribly wrinkled. He must have lived forever in the forest, and was, no doubt, the great-grandfather of hundreds of gorillas. His wife must have died long ago. He was a monster in size. Then old men said they remembered, when they were boys, that a man disappeared from the village; perhaps he had been caught by that very gorilla. ”

“ The only disadvantage the place labours under is the bad quality of the water, which they obtain from wells about four feet deep, on the borders of a narrow stagnant lake.
The chief (Saféré) who with his followers and slaves composed a part of the Kaartan forces, received us kindly, provided us with huts, and furnished us with an excellent supper of rice and mutton, the first good one we had made since leaving Galam. ”

“ I had never seen the Ashira tribe to which Gambo belonged.
One day we had been going through the woods about three hours when at last we came upon fresh gorilla tracks. Etia now set out alone, while Gambo and I walked silently in another direction. The gorilla is so difficult to approach that we had literally to creep through the thick woods when in their vicinity. The hunter cannot expect to see his enemy till he is close upon him. The forest is so thick and gloomy that even when quite near the animal is but dimly visible. All this makes hunting for the gorilla very trying to the nerves ”