Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/191

 The Great Feast in Morocco. 163

either hired for a fixed sum or receives a third part of the eatables and money collected by the company while they go begging from house to house and from village to village, the remainder being divided among the other members of the party, including the musicians. But it also happens that the part of Bujlud is played by a man who suffers from skin disease or boils, which are supposed to be cured by the contact with the skins of sacrificed animals. The play begins in the afternoon of the second day of the feast, and is repeated on the following days, as long as the feast lasts, unless the people are busy, in which case it comes to an end sooner. The scribes look upon it as " forbidden " {hram), and there are many persons who refuse shaking hands with the man who played the part of Bujlud.

From the Arabic-speaking mountaineers of Northern Morocco we pass to the Arabs of the plains. Among all their tribes with whose customs I am acquainted there is likewise a masquerade connected with the celebration of the Great Feast. Among the Ulad Bu-*Aziz it commences in the evening of the first day, after supper. A man, with the assistance of some friends, dresses himself up in six bloody skins of sacrificed sheep, of which he fastens one to each arm and leg, one to the forepart of his body, and one to his back. On his head he puts something black, such as a piece of an old tent cloth, and on either side of his head he ties a slipper to represent ears. He is called s-Sba' bel- Butain ("the Lion with Sheepskins"). He is generally a person who suffers from some illness, since he is supposed to be cured by the holiness of the bloody skins. Two other men disguise themselves as women, covering up their faces with the exception of their eyes ; they are called by the name K'aiwina, and are regarded as the wives of the Sba'. From the place where they dressed themselves they go with their friends into the village, and are there joined by the unmarried men carrying their guns. They all now make a tour from tent to tent in their own and neighbour-