Saba: Under the Hyena’s Foot

Song of the Dawn Singers

That night, Saba doesn’t sleep. Oh Gondar. Both majestic and stealthy, full of whispering servants. Both beautiful and terrible. Luxurious and yet falling to pieces. What is going to happen to Gondar? What is going to happen to her?

Before the sun hatches from its dark shell, Saba listens to the songs of the lalibelotch, the dawn singers. Most are lepers and thus cannot mix with other people, for fear others will catch the skin disease that chews their faces and hands. Just before dawn every morning, they stand like shadows, wrapped in shammas so only their eyes can be seen, and singing at the gates of the rich.

This morning, the songs seem particularly sad and mournful. Saba feels tears gather in the corners of her eyes. She knows what she must do. Before she loses her courage, she must goes to Negatwa’s room and tell her to find some poison. Saba will die as her mother had surely died.

One of the servants has no doubt been sent to the gate with scraps of food for the lalibelotch. In a few moments dawn will leap into the sky, and the dawn singers will slip away. Saba rouses herself from bed and stiffly moves out of the room into the next. But Negatwa isn’t in bed. So she must have decided it is better to go back to being a wood carrier than be dragged far away to a strange place with Saba. She shuffles out of the room and goes to lie down on her bed again to think of who would be willing to help her now. A few moments later, Negatwa comes into the room.

Negatwa explains she went down to talk to the dawn singers. The other day, Negatwa stumbled in the street and dropped the package she was carrying. A man stooped to help her and whispered that she should go to the lalibelotch. This must be dire indeed. Even the sons and daughters of lepers are afraid to get close to diseased figures. Saba is ashamed that she ever doubted Negatwa’s loyalty.

Negatwa glances over her shoulder and sees nobody there, but yet still speaks in the softest tones. The man told Negatwa to bring word from Saba’s teacher. The empress sent him far away, but he never forgot about Saba. When the teacher heard of the marriage he managed to make his way back to Gondar. Saba’s teacher is willing to meet Saba in the dark of night after the moon goes down tomorrow. He’ll bring mules and will help Saba make her way to sanctuary. When the lalibelotch sing before the roosters in tomorrow’s dawn, she must go to him with Saba’s answer.

Saba asks if the teacher mentioned her brother. Negatwa doesn’t meet Saba’s eyes. The teacher said to tell Saba that God will console Saba. Saba is under the protection of God and the earth. Saba’s brother is in the belly of the hyena.

All that day, Saba cries. Negatwa whispers over and over, “May God console you.” But God does not console Saba. When tiredness finally overcomes Saba, she wakes in the middle of the night, moaning. With the wails of the hyenas in her ears, Saba mourns Mesfin as she had mourned the death of her grandfather. Saba has lost Ababba, Emama, and now Mesfin, and even now that she might escape her dreaded marriage, it is terrible to think about being completely alone.

The next morning, Saba tells Negatwa to tell her teacher that she will accept his help. But not to go to the sanctuary. Saba wants to go to Empress Menen’s enemy. To Kassa. There at least she will find her father. When Negatwa returns, she gives an answer back with one word. “Yes.”