people; the man who comes to your homestead no
longer has to struggle
(Text 19/10)
This stylistic device which involves a degree of personi-
fication lies on the fringe of what can be regarded as
imagery. Similar borderline phenomena are the personi-
fications of the letters of the Arabic alphabet in Text 5
and 22.
It may be of interest to note that in Somali secular
oral literature abstract notions (e.g. Truth, Deceit and
244.
Pride) are often personified and occur as dramatic personae
in fables.
IV
Conspectus of Images
All the images which are used In the collection of poems
presented in this thesis are given in the following table.
I have classified the images into a number of subjects, such
as the images of rain, vegetation, domestic animals etc.,
so as to give some indication as to their sources. From
this table, we can clearly see that the imagery with which
the Somali Sufi poets illuminate and embellish the Islamic
themes of their poems is predominantly taken from the Somali
environment and traditional culture.