Evening star., 1935-10-19
CHAINED CONv|CTS
BURDEN TO HARAR
"The Shadow" Who De-
nounced a Judge, Among
Those Who Bear Penalties.
BY LAURENCE STALLINGS.

HARAR, October (By AirmaiD -
Harar is city of chains That song
of Water Boy" with its captivity
comes from a darker blackness than
ever Georgia prison camp engen-
dered. For in Harar chains are so
common that droves of prisoners slow
the traffic of the pinched and fetid
streets as, three times day, they
herd through the town.
Their clanking is not unmusically
pitched against the discordant cries
Of street loungers, though the chief
prisoner of the town wears shackles
linked too close for clanking.
This prisoners name, when writ
ten in the Amharic of the GeeZ, will
stretch across an envelope. In Eng
lish translation it might mean THE
Shadow Cast by the Power Of the
Word" to connote that the name
bearer stood radiant in full light.
looming SO favorably that his shadow
was o. great significance. I always
think of him as the Shadow"
THE Shadow" has done, for his
crime, what every man secretly has
wished to do. In the grip of autocracy,
himself of noble lineage and owning
many bondsmen. he had brooded over
some injustice. Accordingly, two years
ago he repaired to court in high ses-
sion and with great competency de-
nounced the judges, giving them a
classical flashing in a country
where. donkey man will practice
hours the ways in which he may in
clude all related Womankind in in
suits addressed a passerby.
Variety of Chains.
Accordingly, he got his chains.
There are chains in Ethiopia for all
offenders from debtor. chained wrist
to wrist; their, foot to foot, and MUIR
derer. hand and wrist.
The Shadow" got only three links,
each 4 inches long. of heaviest iron.
AS 2 inches are overlapped IN cou-
plingS, he has 10-inch stride. Each
day he sidles to the market place with
his guard, for the brief exercise al
lotted him, always in coolest. whitest
cotton johdpores and chamma. He
has had fashioned a delicate chain
which fastens to the center link be-
tween his ankles. This chain, like a
little dogs leash. then runs up to his
hands. AS he walks he minces little
4-inch steps, delicately keeping the
steel silent from his ankles. holding
himself literally in leash, where once,
figuratively, he failed to check him.
self.
AS "the Shadow" holds his hands
folded across his breast they seem
presented to his adherents for devo-
ton. The fidelity of his slaves is APP
parent from their temerity in rushing
forward to kiss these offending hands
beneath the scowls of his political
guards.
The mans cell on the second floor
of the Jail is reached from an outside
stairway. He accomplishes a GYM
nastic feat each time he ascends these
stairs, for the steps have eight-inch
rises and he has a ten-inch stride.
He toes-up the stairs. siding. placing
a great toe like handgrasp upon the
edge of the stair and then, by strength
of his arch, raising his powerful, tall
form vertically on nice balance. inch-
ing along the step-tread until ball
anced another degree higher than ten
seconds before.
A Semitic Conqueror.
As he is one of the Semitic con-
querors of these black, Hamitic Gallas.
he permits no one to touch him while
affecting his nightly climb. Nor does
he seem remotely conscious of these
chains. He walks with great pride, q
man to whom chains are old in psalm
and story since rivers first knew
captives Of Babylon.
1t is one of the amenities of Harar
that chains are taken as part of life
itself. Both Hamatic and Semitic.
slave and master, know of old the
culture of the chain. They are sur
prising in agility. Two murderers
begging aims to raise blood-money
and placate relatives of the deceased
will seem to be struggling bitterly in
the dust. Yet, when one whips mule
to an ambling pace to pass them, they
CdllllOI NC QloIdlICeU, UuG Will hScp
pace, running as one man on four
legs, screaming for the plaster which
filings them SO much farther from
death.
There seems only one man, however,
who can bear chains in lordly way.
The Shadow" has worn them two
years, and the other day heard that
he was being kept in irons until he
asked a trial-which would mean an
apology-and that he was even of.
fered opportunity to demand one.
They say his answer was that he was
in no hurry.
Tell them" he said, "the chains
have taught me the virtue of reflection
and patience. If the judges will wear
them two years, who knows but they
might, in time. arriv, at wisdom, too,
instead of being the f1ea-bitten sons Of
their mothers, those gray. lice-covered
she-donkeyS which bring flour from
the mills"
(Copyright. 1885. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance Inc. and Fox Movie-
tone NeWSl