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stings until it became swollen. "On the third day he was down with
malaria, he contracted dysentry, and his eyes were completely gummed
up". When asked to see the down tree of Wad Hamid, the preacher
strongly refused and left the village. He was not replaced by any
other preacher. Before his departure the preacher cabled to his
employer: "Come to my rescue, may God bless you; these are people who
are in no need of me or of any other preacher".
Another sub-obligatory meaning is situated in the episode of the
'stopping place for the steamer'. (lines 149-181 of the ST) The
village people , led a life of complacency. They seldom left the
village exceptftir some important business to attend to. One would take
a morning's ride on the donkey to get to the neighbouring village
wherefrom he boarded the steamer to the city. They threatened to kill
a government official when he told them that a stopping place for the
steamer would be built where the doum tree stood. The audience were
more infuriated when they were told that the steamer was scheduled to
arrive at the down tree at 4pm on Wednesdays, the time when the
villagers took their wives and children on a weakly pilgrimage to Wad
Hamid's sepulchre where they made their offerings. When the civil
servant suggested that they should change their pilgrimage day they
knocked him down and nearly killed him. The man was seated on a donkey
and hurried out of th2 village. The steamer never anchored at the tree
and the villagers had to take a morning's ride to the neighbouring
village wherefrom they boarded the steamer to the city.
164