“Hale!” “Halele!”
On the coast road linking Moroni and Mdé, in Bambao, there is a bend where, they say, it is not wise to walk alone after nightfall. The elders point it out with a gesture, without stopping, and quicken their pace.
It is there that a late traveller sometimes sees a figure appear by the roadside. Sometimes it is a silent man wrapped in a shawl; sometimes a woman of unearthly beauty, adorned as if for a wedding. “I am going your way,” she says. “Let me walk part of the way with you, and promise me one thing: whatever happens, do not turn round, and do not lower your eyes.”
Whoever keeps their word walks to the village without mishap. The figure leaves them at the first houses, and all that remains is a scent of musk and the memory of a voice. But whoever gives in to curiosity discovers what should not have been seen: ox's hooves, or feet turned backwards. They are found in the morning, sitting by the roadside, their mind wandering, unable to say what they saw.
That is why local people remind young people who come home late that the night belongs to others too, and that a promise, even one made to a stranger, must be kept.
The night belongs to the invisible ones too: there, you keep your word and your eyes straight ahead.
What we know about it
This story belongs to a large family of legends from Grande Comore: that of djinns who take on the appearance of a passer-by, often a beautiful woman, to accompany travellers at night. As in The passenger with ox's hooves, it is the feet that give the spirit away, and the ban on looking is at the heart of the story.
It was reported to us as being attached to a spot on the coast road between Moroni and Mdé. We have not been able to locate this spot or find the story in published collections: it is given here with reservations, in our own words.
Further reading
- Voices of the archipelago Salim Hatubou, Contes et légendes des Comores ou Genèse d'un pays bantu, 2004. reissued as Aux origines du monde : contes et légendes des Comores, Flies France, 2015.