Twisting tongues, bending knees

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Xarig keliya geel ma wada xiro. You can’t tie the whole herd of camels with one rope.

-On Somali Proverbs, Georgi Kapchits, Bildhaan: International Journal of Somali Studies, Vol. XXI

‘Aqala…Camel Hobble, Twisting of the Tongue when One Desires to Speak

-Lane’s Lexicon

The hobbles had wooden toggles that rattled when at evening camp the drovers went through the herd to tie back one of each camel’s front knees. Picketting them on a one rope high line as one might picket horses wouldn’t have worked because camels couch at night while horses sleep on their feet, all four of them.