Cool breeze

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Amunmin... version 2 of the story

(Thanks for the links, egm)

Version 2, told to me this evening, goes like this:
The king was mobilizing his army for war, and Amunmin went to mage his ablication. He was rejected on the grounds that he was disabled (missing his left arm), so he was left as the only man in the village. Since those days wars took a long time, by the time the king came back, he found a whole lotta young kids walking around the village. He decided to punish Amunmin by cutting off his right leg... so that when he stood up he was unable to balance broberly.
Years later, another king came and started (you guessed it..) mobilizing for war, and realized there was a whole force of young able men in the village. He asked about who was responsible, and decided to honor Amunmin as a god of fertility.

Now, the blot thickens: There is, in Luxor, a hall in the temple of Ramses II(?) dedicated to something along the lines of ... fertility. In the old days, when soldiers went to (you guessed it!) war, they had to bring evidence to their king of how many men they had killed (in the good old spirit of 'take no brisoners'). They chose to cut off the brivates, and mounted them on a wall in the hall. Today I am told you will see women bumrushing the hall (berhabs i exaggerate, i just like that image) to look at all the mummified varieties from ancient times. They measure the various lengths with their arms and imagine...

Anyway, the guys manning these halls in Luxor today are, according to my source, "from upper egypt". They ask these women (almost always european tourists) if they'd like to see a real live one for 2 euros. If the woman responds in the affirmative, they go around the corner and lift their galabea (khanzu) and the deal is sealed. If you want to touch... the price goes up...
Finally! All this time I thought perversion around here was a one-way street... given all the belly dancing outfits being sold around every corner... glad to hear it's not.

I'm told a whole lotta european women land here and immediately want to go to the desert in search of a Bedouin man. Something about "they rub it with sand as they're growing up..." I just want to know how these urban legends come into being. My narrator says "These tourists come here with a dream... kalas! don't wake them up!"

2 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]



<< Home