Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/177

 The Great Feast in Morocco. 149

sprinkled with its blood. The Sluh of Aglu and Glawi sprinkle with sacrificial blood the lintel of the entrance door of their houses, but care must be taken that none of it falls on the threshold, lest anybody should walk over it. At Demnat the dried blood is used as medicine by persons who are supposed to have been struck by j'ntln; it is burned, and the smoke inhaled by the patient. The Ulad Bu-*Aziz put some of the clotted blood mixed with yeast, salt, and tar in the place of the field where the corn is threshed {l-ga'a), to serve as a protection against j'jttln ; and, when they build a new house, they for the same purpose place a similar mixture under the threshold. They also strew some of the dried blood on their pomegranate trees when the blossoms are coming out, so as to prevent them from getting dry. Among the Berbers of the Ait Yusi the same substance is smeared on the backs of their sheep and goats to make them prosper, and also, mixed with henna, on the heads of persons who suffer from headache. The Arabs of the Hiaina throw a small portion of the dried blood in a fire-pot when an easterly gale is blowing, in the hopes that the smoke will stop the wind.

The gall-bladder of the sacrificed animal is commonly hung in the roof of the tent or house, and is allowed to remain there till it falls down by itself; there is much baraka in it. In various Arab and Berber tribes mothers, for the purpose of weaning their babies, rub their breasts with this bladder so as to give them a bitter taste. Among the Ait Sadden women paint their eyes with some powder made from it, mixed with antimony ; and, when an animal is ill, a little piece of it is burned so that the smoke enters its nostrils. The Ait Yiisi, again, give their churns the benefit of its smoke in the spring, when the milk is getting plentiful. Among the Ait Waryagal the person who removes the gall-bladder from the slaughtered animal throws it into the sheep-pen after first spitting on it. Among the At Ubahti both the gall and the urinary bladder are suspended