Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/173

 'The Great Feast in Morocco. 145

with his own hands, performs his sacrifice at that place, immediately after the hteb. In country places it is not the general rale that the first victim is sacrificed at the visdlla ; it may be slaughtered by ^tfki outside the mosque of the village, or, like the other animals, in or outside the owner's house or tent. The head of the animal which is going to be sacrificed is turned towards the East, and, when its throat is cut, the following phrase is muttered by the sacrificer, — Bismillah, alldhu dkbar ; 'ala dhdyyef fidn ben Jlana (" In the name of God, God is most great ; for the sacrifice of so-and-so, son of so-and-so "), the latter name being that of the owner's mother, not of his father. But among the Braber of the Ait Sadden the curious custom prevails of mentioning the name of the owner's wife instead of his own, as well as her mother's name, — Bismilla, lldhu kbar; 'ala dhait flana bent fldna ; and the animal thus slaughtered is looked upon as her property. Although the sacrifice is as a general rule performed on the first day of the feast, it may be postponed till the second or third day, if a suitable animal cannot be procured for the first.

As soon as the animal is killed, its head and feet are cut off. The women seize hold of them in great haste, and singe off the hair as quickly as possible. The Ulad Bu-'Aziz maintain that, if they do not do this rapidly, their own hair will not grow ; but the original reason for the practice in question seems to be the belief prevalent among some Berber tribes (Ait Waryagal, Ait Nder) that the smoke of the hair drives away evil spirits or protects from other evil influences.

The part of the sacrificed animal which is to be eaten first is generally the liver, although there are a few in- stances in which the liver is only partaken of on the second day of the feast ; this at all events is the case among the Ait Sadden and some of the Ait Nder. It is either roasted or boiled with salt, and in many cases

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