Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/335

 On the Orioiu of flic Egyptian '' Zar." 305

Though among the upper classes zar are almost entirely confined to the women, this is by no means the case among the people. Herr P. Kahle^ describes adr in Cairo and Luxor, in both of which men and women participate, and in these ceremonies the spilling of the blood of the victim over the patient, who may also drink of it, is always an important part of the ritual.

Mr. R. Engelbach informs me that among the Fcllahin men arc frequently possessed by spirits for whose benefit zdr must be performed. His notes indicate the readiness of a religious people to assimilate foreign ideas with their own religion, and to believe in them as part of their own faith. Thus poor folk before resorting to a adr will attempt to exorcise the spirit by invoking the name of Allah and bless- ing the Prophet, though this rarely has any effect. One of the causes of illness due to the spirits is the neglect of prayer, but above all the neglect of mentioning the name of God before sleeping; thus it .seems that the fellahin take protection in the name of Allah against the malignant power of the spirits who are always ready to enter the body if the soul should stray from the sleeper. The fellahin apparently confound these spirits with the Jinn and Afrit who have their place in the Muslim cosmology.

The objective signs of possession shown by the women in the adr that I saw in the Sudan during the winter 1909-1910 differ in no very marked degree from those of Egypt. It must be remembered that in the Sudan the women do not veil, though they may draw their head-cloth over their mouths on occasions. Hence zdr are not restricted to the harem, but are held in the open and men both watch and participate in them.

enumerated and to break up their influence in accordance with the principles of true religion and for the safeguarding of morality and the protection of cliaracter from corruption, requesting them also to prescribe the penalties for such doings according to the precepts of the Religious Law."' ' Zar Beschworungen, Der Islam, 1912.