Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/337

 On the Origin of the Ei^yptian '' Zai-y .^07

one by one, women came forward, dropped on their knees on the mat spread before the musicians and became possessed, jerked their bodies and shook their heads until they were utterly dazed. After continuing these vigorous movements for some minutes they usually uttered some request of their asiad in a muffled voice. One woman, however, sang quite clearly in a minor key Ana )ncsdfir htfUd. vu'n bcladi bit babur, isini niiiiso (I am travelling far from my country in a steamer, my name is Nimso).^ Her familiar was not con- tent until the musicians had taken up the tune he set. Most of the women ceased their movements as suddenly as they began them and sat inert on the ground. The Sheykha would then come to them, cross and recross their arms and legs and bend their necks, until they had regained conscious- ness, when she would assist them to rise. They all went away quietly, or rejoined the little throng of watchers, except one woman who moved a few yards away and danced for a minute or two. When she stopped she did not know where she was ; all recollection of the zdr had gone from her, and she thought she had come directly from her own hut.

The absence of blood in this ceremony is not so char- acteristic as would appear at first sight. These ::dr were held weekly and no doubt appeared to the participators to be part of the routine of their ordinal)' life; but whenever the spirits demanded it, and their hosts could afford it, bigger cdr would be held and sacrifices made when the blood would play as important a part as in ail other car.

Zar are held in Morocco where they are most popular amongst the negresses ; they are common in the harems of Cairo and the upper classes conform to the same ritual.^" Further, since Niya Salima mentions two rich freed Negresses who came from Constantinople to Cairo yearlvto

•Perhaps meaning Nimsawi, "an Austrian.'

^^ The Shereefa of Wazan was kind enough to answer my questions on this subject.