9.2 Grand Devil's Claws

In the northern front on the western side where boats from the islands moored by the promenade, Muaz received his grandmother upon a request from Farida. He and the boat crew helped the old woman down a narrow plank of timber crossed between the prom and the boat. There were wooden barrows and people, firewood stacks and coconut heaps, island products and yelling voices. A couple of four-wheel lorries and plenty of bicycles.

“Grandma! How was the trip?” he asked.

“A lovely day!” she cried, “Such a smooth glassy sea bathed in oil. Where is Badi?”

“She’s at home getting ready for the Friday show at Kurumba.”

He could not carry his grandma on his high seat motorbike so he grabbed Jumbo’s black mini up front the atoll shops. They drove to Salty Breeze bumping into potholes on the roads like if travelling on a rough sea.

She uttered getting down, “This part of the trip is a bit rough. I think I’ve broke my back.” Mantha arrived in Malé on 17^th March.

Next couple of weeks were extremely busy days at Salty Breeze and all around the archipelago to coincide with a newly recognised Independence Day to be marked on 29^th March and not on 26^th July. It was decided by the government that this change was necessary following the evacuation of Gan in Addu Atoll by the British Royal Air Force in 1976.

In the next few days, Salt purchased those items Mantha listed for a ritual such as vellum skin, ambergris, ink and tiny lockets. All that scribbling done by Mantha on vellum skin that they bought from a local herbal shop. She prepared twenty-three sheets for twenty-two dancers and one singer. Farida excluded because she was already under the influence.

They gathered numerous other items and stuff like ahi faí – great morinda leaves or vomit fruit, los faí – grand devil’s claws and bilaí – betel leaves. She required those leaves with boughs and they got them from nearby islands.

By the left corner stood a banyan tree and grass inside a ring at the base, another green ring in the middle, and more grass on the right by the south boundary wall. A driveway around the centre ring filled with white sand. There stood a couple of palms and few bigger trees in the foreground. The two-storey house in the front raised on two wings with beige walls, each wing mounted with four large windows on the top and two separate windows on the bottom floor. When lights turned on, those interiors lit in yellowish glow. Between those two wings, a square plot of garden was maintained with three areca palms by three corners that loomed over the mid wall with an arch opening to pass through. Immediately on the right, stood the dining hall and on the left, stood the main lounge that opened to the side lawn walled to the narrow lane. And the left side boundary wall roofed a hall with a door to the foreground and a door to the side lawn. The gate on the narrow lane led directly into this hall.

Behind the two projecting wings, it was raised at roof level which was the main section of the house with rooms on either side of the North-South corridors on the top and bottom floors. A staircase by the dining room led to a studio on the right wing and up the corridor to Salt’s room on the left wing. Two bathrooms on the top floor accessed from the corridor and one reserved for Farida’s and Salt’s children. Salt’s room with attached bath. There were two open-air shower gardens in the backyard on the left and right corners of the lot.

Another wall with a gate blocked the dining and kitchen side leaving a side lawn flanking the mosque and the gifili beyond.

On the night of Grand Devil’s Claws that Muaz did not witness because it was his grandmother who did the ritual, preparations took place on the lawn bordering the mosque wall in the kitchen front.

In the morning, all the girls were called up at six and they took bathe by the wells as instructed; scrub and shave. They could only wear a shirt dress that whole day. It was the 24^th Friday. The gates were locked, buckets of water placed near the centre ring in the foreground and ambergris torches fixed around the grass.

Mantha sat down to scrawl which was termed as body drawing and scribbled on their bodies with blue ink; Quink Permanent Parker blue ink that they bought from Ashrafi Bookshop. Ten lines on the back and three lines on the chest in Arabic; verses from the Holy Book. Mantha had to scribble all that by her hand on twenty-three girls and it was one of the most painstaking rituals she ever undertook. She concluded this process after seven hours. Five in the afternoon when all done. Those windows lit in yellow lights.

In the main lounge that opened to the side lawn, in the left wing or the north wing, a long table dressed in white and chairs placed around set for a Mawlid recital. A team of reciters sat around the table and performed this ritual reciting hymns aloud and in chorus. A Mawlid table had to be arranged meticulously with stained glassware and decorated vases. Two blue glass carafes placed with drinking water and two potpourri vases filled with perfume that would be worn by the dancers eventually after taking bath following the Grand Devil’s Claws. This Sufi Mawlid service started at five and lasted an hour and a half. They were paid in cash in an envelope at the end of the ceremony and they were gone.

After a short meal, the girls were instructed to wash their mouths thoroughly and by seven-thirty in the evening, they formed a circle around the grass ring in the foreground facing the focus of the circle. Those torches came aflame.

A Full Moon rose behind the house and it turned balmy but nobody could notice the Blood Moon. At eight-thirty, Mantha ordered the dancers to drop their clothes. Then the girls stood unclothed with only the girdles on their hips and the writings on their bodies. Nobody was allowed to talk, eat or smoke.

An eclipse prayer commenced at the mosque in the next lot. Mantha began her prayer spilling water on their shoulders and hair, soaking the girls. Then the girls were told to kneel using their shirts under knees for ease from the rough sand.

Prayers continued and Mantha began to lash the girls with ahi leaves followed by los leaves. Those lashes were loud and heard to the roadside over the wall. After every lashing, those boughs turned into stalks.

By then a total lunar eclipse took place and darkness cast over the entire island. She continued her prayer and lashing until the total eclipse ended at 10:07 pm.

Mantha passed them two types of leaves to taste – betel leaves and grand devil’s claws. The girls could not tell which type of leaf they were given to chew under the influence.

Meanwhile, the partial moon eclipse continued. Mantha passed those lockets of amulets to them to wear on their girdles. Each locket sealed with a vellum skin on which she wrote a fanditha for self-protection. After this, no bad luck or ill fate would befall the dancers, protected from all forms of spell and bout that might result from their profession or performance – nothing to fear.

The partial moon eclipse ended at 11:11 pm and the penumbra ceded at 12:14 am. This ritual could only take place during a lunar eclipse and that was the reason why it was scheduled for this year.