The Bed, Scorpion, and Crocodile: Stories Reflecting the Sudanese Perspective on the Stars

SadaNews - The popular astronomical knowledge remains prevalent in the culture of many Arab communities, including the Manasir community in northern Sudan, where popular memory has preserved a series of star names and the stories associated with them, which played a practical role in knowing the seasons, directions of travel, and times of night.

This knowledge is passed down orally through generations, often narrated by grandmothers and parents to children as a means of both education and entertainment.

Seven Daughters: The Stars of the Bed

Among the most famous star groups defined in Arab heritage are the Seven Daughters, which are the seven prominent stars in the Big Dipper constellation. The people of Manasir also know them by this name, comparing their shape in the sky to a "bed" (the traditional wooden bed).

In the popular heritage, there is a saying that grandmothers used to ask children to repeat seven times consecutively without breathing, which is: "Seven Daughters, for the coffin, count to seven, enter the jinn."

The amusing belief associated with this was that whoever could say it seven times in succession without breathing would enter paradise. It seems that this saying was more like a verbal game or a folk joke aimed at entertaining and piquing the interest of children rather than being a serious belief.

Stars of the Three Sticks, the Little Goat, and the Crocodile

The group of three stars aligned in a line is known as the sticks or "three sticks"; they are in fact the famous three stars in the belt of the Orion constellation. The locals observe the even distances between them, which makes them appear as three aligned sticks.

Nearby the star at the end of this line appears a small star known locally as "the little goat" or "the little goat." Following that, smaller dim stars are known as the crocodile.

Around these stars, there is a folk story that says the crocodile tries to prey on the little goat, but the three sticks stand in its way, protecting it and preventing the crocodile from reaching it. Thus, the stars have remained in the sky in this symbolic state for a long time.

Pleiades and the Times of Heat

The Pleiades group holds a special place in the popular calendar; people would observe the times of their rise and set due to the changes in weather associated with that. When they disappear during certain times of the year, the heat intensifies and the spread of scorpions increases, which led people to describe those days by saying: "These are the days of the Pleiades' disappearance."

This period was also associated with popular prayers and incantations, such as saying: "O Prophet Noah, O reader of the tablet," referring to a plea for protection from heat and pests.

Stars of the Scorpion and Weather Changes

The constellation of Scorpius is one of the most prominent constellations associated with observing the seasons. The locals describe it as a group of stars resembling the known shape of a scorpion, hence its name. Its appearance in the sky is gradual, with people linking it to weather changes.

The first phase begins with the appearance of the front stars of the scorpion, known locally as "the moustache," accompanied by a slight drop in temperatures known as the "cold of the moustache." Then the stars that form the body and legs of the scorpion emerge, with a star in the middle that tilts towards red known as "the heart of the scorpion." With its emergence, the weather begins to warm slightly, and at that moment, they say, "the warm of the heart."

Following that, the tail of the scorpion gradually appears at dawn, marking its first rise until its image is completed with the appearance of its stinger, at which point the cold peaks, known among the locals as the "sting cold," often coinciding with the harshest cold spells of winter.

Capricorn Star and Direction Determination

One of the important stars in traditional navigation is the Capricorn star, which appears almost fixed in the sky. People relied on it to determine directions, including the direction of the Qibla (the direction of prayer). It was said that anyone standing with the Capricorn star to their left would be facing the Qibla.

The Milky Way in Popular Imagination

As for the bright starry strip extending across the sky, scientifically known as the Milky Way, it has been associated in popular imagination with various names and interpretations. In some narratives, it is called the "sheep's galaxy," and local folk tales link it to the ram that Gabriel (peace be upon him) brought as a sacrifice for the Prophet Ismail (peace be upon him).

In other narratives, especially in some Arab countries, it is said that this starry strip resembles the trace of a caravan carrying hay bales, one of which opened, causing hay to fall and leaving a trail in the sky, which is a fanciful explanation reflecting ancient humans' attempts to interpret celestial phenomena based on what they observe in their daily lives.

These folk tales reveal a deep presence of the sky in, daily lives of traditional communities. The stars were for them a natural calendar, a guide for travelers, and a source of stories and cultural symbols.

Although modern scientific explanations have precisely interpreted the nature of these stars and constellations, the heritage value of these stories remains a testament to how humans have understood the sky throughout the ages.

Source: Online websites