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incident known in Islamic history as the 'Fitna'. This historical
allusion raises the symbolic status of the doum tree of Wad Hamid
to a higher altitude. (lines 49-52)
(b) The author describes the doum tree in an exquisite literary style,
very much close to poetry: "Here it is: the doum tree of Wad Hamid.
Look how it holds its head aloft to the skies; look how its roots
strike down into the earth; look at the full, sturdy trunk, like
the form of a comely woman, at the branches on high resembling the
mane of a frolicsome steed!" (lines 61-66) "Don't you think it is
like some mythical eagle spreading its wings over the village and
its people?" (lines 70-71) "Look at it, my son, look at the down
tree: lofty, proud, and haughty - as though it were some ancient
idol". (lines 88-89) The down site is "stony and appreciably
higher than the river bank, like the pedestal of a statue, while
the river twists and turns below it like a sacred snake, one of the
ancient Gods of the Egyptians". (lines 97-99) In the man's dream,
the down tree stood skyhigh in the midst of the down forest "like a
camel amid a herd of goats". (line 116-118) In a state midway
between wakefulness and sleep, the woman saw the down tree
"prostrating" as if in prayer. (line 221)
(c) The people's reactions to external phenomena are predictable in
relation to the down tree of Wad Hamid. The village population
were astonished when the civil servant disclosed the government's
decision to set up a stopping place for the steamer in the place of
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