Modaina

A dirge by the wife of Fekak, the son Be^emnat, for her father-in-law Be^emnat. Be-emnat fought, together with his son Terag, at Et-hemmarat, against Obe . And they killed many of the army of Obe. Then he and his son died there. And the wife of his son sang of him in this way.


The Mansa were beaten : they returned to their children.
But my father refused : he entered the shower of bullets.
The Mansa were beaten : they returned to their seat.
But my father refused : [he dared] to risk his life.
The Mansa were beaten: they returned to their council place. (2)
But my father refused : he endured the storm of bullets ;
He was like Hesal(1) wad whose mother was Hasala's daugh Samara, ter.
Be burnt, O ^andalat tree; now try to fetch something!
Mayest thou perish far away, and follow thine Amhara! (3)
Let Mangur go thither to TaflenSyit; (4)
Let him show there herds and heifers!
This shield of Mangur is brave and boasting.






(1) Hesal, the son of Samara and of the daughter of Hasala, was a famous hero of the Bet-Sahaqan, about 1850; Hasala was a well known hero of the Mansa

(2) An c aafo/-tree (Capparis persicifolia R.) is at the council-place of the Ad-Bula at Galab ; there Be^emnat used to sit. The singer curses the tree and says to it: "Go, and try to find somebody else, but thou wilt not find any (3) therefore, follow thine Amhara, i. e. the man who killed Be-emnat, and
die alone!"

(4) Mangur was the seqrat of Be-emnat. Taflenayit is a hill north-east of Galab.