Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/198

 170 The Popidar Ritual of

the skins of sacrificed animals Builmaun, from the Selha word ihfian7i{smgMej!i) meaning "skins." He is accompanied by his wife Ti'azza and one or several "Jews," and beats the people either with a stick or with the foot of a sacrificed sheep or goat. This masquerade commences on the second day of the feast. In Aglu, in Sus, the only dressed-up person is Bujlud, as he is here called. He is likewise covered with the skins of sacrificed animals, and has the horns of a sacrificed goat on his head. On the second, third, and fourth days of the feast he goes about from house to house, accompanied by musicians, receiving various kinds of provisions, and beating the people with the foot of a sheep hanging from his arm. He represents the holiness of the feast, and transfers its benign virtue to those whom he beats ; sick persons in particular are supposed to profit by this, and mothers take to him their little children to be cured of their ailments by being touched and frightened by him. When he visits a house, the owner of it addresses him with words like these, — Adagifk rabbi ssaht dlehena mas akdagntmiikkir iindl yhndl, a Bujhid, selhaia dssaht, a sidi rabbi (" May God give us health and quietness so that we shall meet you again next year and the year after, O Bujlud, with quietness and health,

my Lord God !"). To this the people accompanying him reply, — Aftllaiinig rabbi l^aidad dunbarki, Igag ftllaun din- bdrkift (" May God make this feast blessed for you, may he make us blessed for you ! "). From other parts of Sias

1 am told that, on the second day of the feast, a man is likewise dressed up in skins with horns of a goat. He goes round visiting the houses, takes from them chickens or eggs or any other things he wants, dances, and beats the people. Mothers come to him with their little children so that they shall be frightened by him and thereby keep in good health or, if ill, be cured. The name given to him is Herma, an Arabic word meaning "decrepit."

The same name is used at Saffi, a little town on the