Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/350

 3i8 On the Origin of the Egyptian '' Zary

through his nostrils and his eyes seemed to protrude from his head. His body bent forward from the waist, with chin thrown up and elbows stiffly held back, he raised his knees and remained some seconds first on one leg then on the other ; then he would work his elbows to and fro or suddenly clasp his hands behind his back and dance more quickly. The music ceased suddenly : immediately both men stopped dancing, and Kaltuma, still kneeling on the mat, straightened her body and remained perfectly still.

Throughout the whole ceremony there were frequent intervals when the drummers stopped abruptly ; every time, however wild the movements were, the dancing ended abruptly with the drumming, even when the women's rattles and cries sounded a few seconds longer. For, as Farag explained, it is the drum that excites the spirits who pro- duce the symptoms of possession in the body in which they dwell. When the drum sounded again Kaltuma's tremors started afresh, she swayed her body and shook her head, and the men began to dance. Madigu, who assumed the same strained expression as before, as soon as he heard the sound of the drum, took a small skin, apparently of a hyaena, made a circle on the ground about two feet in diameter and placed the skin in the centre. He then brought forth a man from among the onlookers, gave him a spear and told him to hit the skin ; the man failed. After much leaping to and fro Madigu thrust at the skin and failed also. The skin belonged to Babinga and no mortal could hit it, however hard he tried. The skin was removed and the spear thrust in the ground. Madigu now tried to move past the spear, but some invisible force held him back, he pressed forward and struggled in vain ; beyond the spear was the land of the spirits into which he could not pass. The dancers continued their efforts, shaking, shuffling, swing- ing,twirling, leaping, jerking and posturing, while the women, singing and shaking their rattles, jerked their bodies to the rhythm of the music, and another stood apart and marked