Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/89

Rh other article without uttering the name of God, for although in the present case the borrowed property had been returned, it might well happen that it should entirely disappear.

The story thus related, is capable of a still more serious interpretation according to traditions which I have heard in several forms and of which Curtiss gives the following variant: (Primitive Semitic Religion, ch. ix.) "It is well known that they (the Syrians) affirm that the jinn may have sexual intercourse with men and women. … It is said that women sometimes find that their best gowns, which they had carefully locked up in their bridal chests, have been worn and soiled by female spirits, during their confinement, because they did not utter the name of God when they were locking them up." (See also Baldensperger Pal. Expl. Fund Statement, 1899.)

Christians and Moslems have each their own formulae upon entering the bath. The Christians say:

sometimes adding:

As they pass on to the various parts of the bath they exclaim: