There could not have been a better drover on the Darb al-Arba’een than Masood abu Dood, Father of the Lion, the Sudanese dialectical sense of his patronym being quite the contrary to what Lane gives in Classical Arabic as Worm, Grub, Maggot. But Lane gives a most unexpected meaning to a cognate word from the same triliteral root D-W-D, Dawdaah, a Seesaw. Mounting a camel is much like that, Up-Back-Up-Even, and he did have the most light-hearted manner of all, so perhaps for those forty days I misunderstood Masood’s true name.
Photo ©David Melody