Psychic twins and camel milk – a bedtime story?
Life as we know definitely don’t know it: a story from the far south of Egypt in Daraw, near Aswan, right at the border with Sudan. There you will find a kind-faced man called Fareed Ali Elomda and two camels. We searched a long time for this man.
Even this close to Sudan, a major camel country, the presence of these lovely beasts in Egypt is becoming a rarity. But Mr Fareed is still there, waiting patiently with mummy camel and baby camel just as always. Mr Fareed milks his camels and gives it all away for free in old plastic water bottles. To us, hungry for a taste of the precious liquid, he gives three bottles.
Making friends with the growing congregation of faces looking into ours we share a sheesha pipe, squeeze lumps of henna between our hands staining us into the family, and chew on long sticks of sugar cane, crunching, sucking and munching in happy union. With our hands full of cultural bonding it’s time for a break from filming.
As the sun sets behind the milky camels Mr Fareed invites us back to his home, where Mrs Fareed fills a table with delicious homemade food. Such hospitality is humbling and met by grateful bellies.
Full of handmade cheese, home-baked bread, honey and lemonade, we sit back to talk of camels… Fatma Mahmoud, mother grandmother, sits small in a corner, quietly curled, waiting for her turn to speak. When she does, she says something so incredible our interpreter hesitates to translate what she is saying….
(Paraphrasing this strange story of southern Egyptian lore)
Twins are born frequently in Daraw. And when they are their unique mental connection does strange things as they sleep….
As eyes close and little heads nod off, even littler souls escape and attach to the body of a roaming cat.
Now that all sounds fine….until that same cat gets into some mischief somewhere and gets rewarded with a kick. This kick, painful to the cat, reveals itself as a bruise on the sleeping child. And if that cat runs out into a busy road………….
How do frightened parents protect their troublesome twins?
Easy, says Fatma, just feed the children camel milk before bedtime and the cat/soul connection is severed.
Grandma Fatma couldn’t tell us how, but it worked. She knew because she had seen it. That’s called empirical evidence people…well sort of.
Grandma Fatma seems happy with the absolute hush she brought on the conversation and curls back into her seat with a smile. Our interpreter is quieted. wouldn’t you be? We have listened to some strange stories, but this tops our milky list. Our journey must be followed northwards. No time to find psychic twins – camels alone took long enough to track down. Another day perhaps, in another lifetime.
Camel milk cures psychic sleep-wanderings in young twins. It could catch on.
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