Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/157

 THE POPULAR RITUAL OF THE GREAT FEAST IN MOROCCO.

BY EDWARD WESTERMARCK, PH.D.

{Read at Meeting, June 15//^, 19 10.)

On the tenth day of the month of Du '1-hijja the Muham- medan world celebrates its yearly sacrificial feast, known under different names in different Moslem countries. In Morocco the Arabic-speaking population call it l-'id l-kblr, " the Great Feast," and the Berbers (Braber) living south of Fez /'td dmkkaran, which means the same.^ So far as I am aware, the popular ritual of this feast has never before been studied in full among any Muhammedan people, apart from its connection with the Meccan pilgrimage; hence I hope that a detailed account of the manner in which it is celebrated in Morocco may be of some interest.

The customs and rites connected with it may be divided into the following groups: — (i), practices of a purificatory or sanctifying character the object of which is to prepare

^The Muhammedan population of Morocco may be divided into the following groups : — the Arabic-speaking tribes of the plains (the '■Arab) ; the Arabic-speaking mountaineers of Northern Morocco (the Jbdla) ; the Berbers of the Rif (Rudfa), whose country extends along the Mediterranean coast from the neighbourhood of Tetuan to the Algerian frontier ; the Berbers called Braber, who inhabit the mountain districts of Central Morocco ; the Berbers called Sink (Slok), who inhabit the chief part of the Great Atlas range, and also the province of Sus, situated to the south of it ; and, lastly, the Berbers called Drdwa, who inhabit the valley of the Wad Dra in the extreme south of Morocco. To the last-mentioned group no reference is made in the present article.