Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/93

 The Powers of Evil in Jerusalem. 65

brother or other near relative, the usual formula is: "So- and-so is dead. May you live long," or even, " May God give you his life." This extends even to favourite or valuable animals. A man will say on hearing of the death of a neighbour's horse, " May it redeem you," i.e. be accepted in your stead. A child is redeemed by the shedding of blood at his birth, a male child, that is, — the others do not count. A father will say, for example : " I have no children, only three pieces of daughter," — the phrase being equivalent to our " so many head of cattle." I am told, however, that in certain districts the mother, on their behalf, will sacrifice a hen.

I had the very rare privilege, thanks to the courtesy of the Husseini, the Moslem family at present in power in Jerusalem, of assisting at the pilgrimage and annual festival to the shrine of Moses in the desert of Judaea, which comes only second, or some say third, after Mecca, and which very few Europeans have been admitted to see in its entirety. Dr. H. H. Spoer and I were the only ones who remained the entire day, and late into the evening. There were thousands of excited Moslems, the only women being a few Bedu ; but we were privileged to watch every- thing from the windows of the private apartments of the Mayor of Jerusalem, who belonged to the family of the original founders of the shrine; and were, moreover, able to take a considerable number of photographs, unperceived by those who would undoubtedly have protested, in very practical form, had they been aware of it. An in- teresting feature was the very large number of little boys brought from every part of the country for circumcision and who were afterwards paraded on gaily caparisoned horses. We witnessed the arrival of many of these ; they were coming in all day and even after dark, accompanied by their male relatives, and in every case by a sheep for sacrifice. The poor creature was often so exhausted, dusty and panting after a long journey, that one felt almost