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4 The doum tree of Wad Hamid
a frolicsome steed! In the afternoon, when the sun is low, the
doum tree casts its shadow from this high mound right across
the river so that someone sitting on the far bank can rest in its
shade. At dawn, when the sun rises, the shadow of the tree
stretches across the cultivated land and houses right up to the
cemetery. Don't you think it is like some mythical eagle
sp.-eading its wings over the village and everyone in it? Once
the government, wanting to put through an agricultural scheme,
decided to cut it down: they said that the best place for setting
up the pump was where the doum tree stood. As you can see, the
people of our village are concerned solely with their everyday
needs and I cannot remember their ever having rebelled against
anything.. However, when they heard about cutting down the
down tree they all rose up as one man and barred the district
commissioner's way. l'hat was in the time of foreign rule. The
flies assisted them too—the horse-flies. The man was
surrounded by the clamouring people shouting that if the doum
tree were cut down they would fight the government to the last
man, while the flies played havoc with the man's face. As his
papers were scattered in the water we heard him cry out: 'All
right—doum tree stay—scheme no stay!' And .so neither the
pump nor the scheme came about and we kept our doum tree.
Let us go home, my son, for this is no time for talking
in the open. This hour just before sunset is a time when the
army of sand-flies becomes particularly active before going to
sleep. At such a time no one who isn't well-accustomed to them
and has become as thick-skinned as we are can bear their stings.
Look at it, my son, look at the doum tree: lofty, proud, and
haughty as though—as though it were some ancient idol.
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