Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/179

 The Great Feast in Morocco. 151

The jaw-bones are in Andjra used as a rain charm ; they are hung on a bamboo stick which is fastened to a tree or a house, and, when the wind makes them rattle, rain will fall. In the Hiaina, if a person has an aching back-tooth, he puts on the cheek the corresponding half of the lower jaw-bone of the sacrificed animal ; whilst its fore-teeth are burned and the smoke is inhaled by anybody who is troubled with giddiness.

The horns of the animal are in Andjra burned into powder which, mixed with water, is used as ink by the schoolboys in order to improve their writing. With the same mixture some scribe writes a few words from the Koran on a new plate, pours water over the writing, and puts some raisins in it. The water is then drunk by a schoolboy who cannot learn his lessons, and the raisins, enveloped in a new handkerchief, are placed by the scribe near the beehives. Next morning, before sunrise, he brings back the raisins, which are eaten by the boy on an empty stomach with a view to increasing his capacity for learning. In the same tribe a horn of a sacrificed sheep is hung in a pomegranate tree to prevent the blossoms from falling down. Among the Ait Waryagal slices cut from the horns are thrown into the fire when a snake is seen inside the house, the smoke being supposed to drive it away.

Among the Ait Yusi some fat of the eyes of a sacrificed animal is at the Great Feast following the birth of a child given to the child to eat in order to protect it against evil spirits.

Among the same tribe the tail of the sacrificed sheep is cut off and preserved for occasions when there is a strong easterly gale, a bit of it being burned to stop the wind.

The skin of the animal should never be sold ; yet there are persons who break this rule. It is sometimes given away in charity, sometimes used as a praying mat, but most frequently it is made into a sack for holding women's clothing or into a churn s© as to increase the quantity of