Belai the Cannibal

Belai, the cannibal of Qemer, is the anti-hero of one of the best-loved tales of the Ethiopian Miracles of the Virgin Mary, a Marian legend innovated in the highlands and unknown to the Arabic and European collections. A nobleman who devours seventy-eight people, family and strangers alike, he one day yields water to a thirsty leper who begs in the name of the Virgin. When his soul is later weighed in the balance, that single drop of charity outweighs all the souls he consumed, and Mary carries him to heaven before the astonished angels. The story is a favourite subject of church wall-painting, its panels depicting the devouring, the gift of water, and the scales of judgement.

Domains

• penitence and mercy

Powers

• is saved when a drop of charity outweighs his sins

Epithets

• ሰብእ በላዒ — the man-eaterWendy Laura Belcher, 'Mary Saves the Man-Eater: Value in the Medieval Ethiopian Marian Miracle Tale of The Cannibal of Qəmər,' 2019. (secondary)

Sources

• Belai, a man of Qemer who devoured seventy-eight people, is saved at judgement because he once gave a thirsty leper water in the name of the Virgin Mary, a tale native to the Ethiopian Ta'amra Maryam.: Ta'amra Maryam (The Miracles of the Virgin Mary), 'The Cannibal of Qemer'. (primary); Wendy Laura Belcher, 'Mary Saves the Man-Eater: Value in the Medieval Ethiopian Marian Miracle Tale of The Cannibal of Qəmər' (2019); Princeton Ethiopian Miracles of Mary Project. (secondary)