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Herufi - letter (of alphabet), or any other scripts whether symbols,
logographs, rigid code and so forth, that are used in writing.
Writing is a method of codifying words or sometimes concepts into a
coherent message. One has to be literate in a particular kind of written script
to be able to decode the message. Otherwise, it remains cipher. Writing is
useful in enclosing messages to the interpretation of targeted people only, and
simultaneously in distributing messages widely over time since it is relatively
immutable compared to speech.
Zingira - round up, enclose, surround.
Mzingire – round (him/her) up.
Msemo (aphorism)
Mzingile mwanambiji.
Translation: Round up the sailor.
A double-entendre, meaning either " Turn the tables upon
him," or " Bind him with his hands behind his back." It was once
turned to good effect by a Mazrui governor in Mombasa, Masudi bin Nâsir, who
had been taken by surprise one night, and cast into prison, where he was put in
chains, and tortured by having thorns run into his tongue so that it swelled,
in order that he might not be able to speak to anyone. However, he wrote these
words on a bit of paper ; and his enemies, searching for someone to read them,
happened at last to ask the Kilindini people (whose township, on the other side
of the Island of Mombasa, was friendly to Masudi); and they, divining what had
happened, set upon those who had imprisoned their friend, and, having worsted
them, released him, and imprisoned the conspirators in their turn.
With this device, compare the story of the " Letter of
Bellerophon."
When Bellerophon was living in the kingdom of Proetus, the king's
wife Stheneboea (or Antia, as some call her) fell in love with him and sent him
proposals for a meeting; and when he rejected them, she told Proetus that
Bellerophon had sent her a vicious proposal. Proetus believed her, and gave Bellerophon
a letter to take to Iobates, king of Lycia, in which it was written that he was
to kill Bellerophon. Having read the letter, Iobates ordered him to kill the
Chimera, believing that he would be killed by the beast.
The Chimera, offspring of Typhon and Echidna, was a monster which
had fore part of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and its third and middle head
that belched fire was that of a goat. The Chimera was reared by Amisodarus.
This creature devastated the country and harried the cattle because it had the
power of three beasts.
Bellerophon mounted his winged horse Pegasus and shot down the
Chimera from the height with an arrowhead of lead that melted inside the fiery
chimera’s throat. When Bellerophon returned victorious to King Iobates, the
king was unwilling to believe his story. A series of daunting quests ensued.
The king Iobates ordered him to fight, first the Solymi, and next the Amazons.
And when also against them he was victorious, Iobates bade the bravest of the
Lycians of the Carian pirate, Cheirmarrhus, to lay an ambush and slay him. Bellerophon
killed them also. The palace guards then were sent against him, but Bellerophon
called upon his father Poseidon, who flooded the plain of Xanthus behind
Bellerophon as he approached. Iobates, feeling that Bellerophon enjoyed the
protection of the gods, revealed to him the letter and begged him to stay with
him. Moreover, he gave him his daughter; and when King Ioabates died, he
bequeathed to Bellerophon the kingdom of Lycia.
The notion of literacy, and even sometimes jargon, enables enclosing/fencing
the authorized agents towards the encoded message. And is very decisive in
settling duels.
References
Bellerophon (s. of Glaucus) mythical
character. Wikidata ID: Q189872 https://topostext.org/people/807
Taylor, W.E. (1891). African
Aphorisms: Saws from Swahili-land. Society for the Promotion of Christian
Knowledge, London.
TUKI (2001), Kamusi Ya
Kiswahili-Kiingereza; Swahili-English Dictionary. Published by Taasisi ya
Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI), Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
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