Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/245

 Some Algerian Superstitions. 235

The Ouled Ziane sheykh asserted that the sight of the skulls of large animals, mostly of mules, that are hung upon date palms and other trees in the orchards of his tribe to protect them from the " evil eye " causes injury at some future time to the giver of the admiring glance, but I was unable to learn how this is explained.

These skulls are suspended by the Shawia in their gardens and upon their houses, and I have seen upon one of the latter a piece of a camel's backbone hung in a con- spicuous position as a charm against the " evil eye." The Ouled Ziane hang written talismans upon their ).-oung horses and mules to protect them from the effects of the admiring glance and other ills ; but nothing is usually done for the protection of goats, sheep, dogs, or cats. When a donkey is born in a camp of these nomads, however, some cinders from the camp fire are wrapped in a rag and hung over its forehead, from its ears, in order, the sorceress told me, that it should not return to old camping grounds when the tents are moved on in search of fresh pasture.

The people of Ain Touta, according to my Arab orderly, place a necklet of snails around a young donkey's neck to protect it against the " evil eye."

The Shawia regard the pine tree as distasteful to jenoun for reasons which we shall understand when considering the medical superstitions described below, and accordingly small pieces of its wood are attached to children's necklets as charms against the " evil eye," as are pieces of a root known to the Shawia as " adath," the identity of which I have not been able to establish ; while among both the Shawia and the people of A'ln Touta little bundles of the seeds of " kamoun " i^Cuniininn cyminiini) are worn by women to keep off the jinn of the "evil eye" as well as other jenoun, though I have not been able to learn why they should be considered efficacious for the purpose.

A person who thinks that he has been made a victim of