Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/261

 Some A/gerian Superstitions. 251

Chameleons being considered by the Ouled Ziane to be displeasing to jenoun, it seems probable that their treat- ment of whooping-cough, by administering a chameleon made into soup to the patient, may be intended to expel the jinn which is causing the malady ; a starling, too, is made into soup for the same purpose by these people, who also use a soup made of snails and butter ; while the Shawia of the southern portion of the Aures are in the habit of suspending from the neck of a child suffering from whooping-cough the dried body of a "black" bird (which from its name appears to be a starling), such as is found in the oases.

The habit of the natives of El Kantara of heating a colocynth fruit, cutting it in half and binding one half to each foot in the evening in order to cure pain in the small of the back, was possibly suggested by the supposed dislike of jenoun for the bitter colocynth, and as Lane states that " alum is esteemed a very efficacious charm against the 'evil-eye,'"-* and, therefore, if the connection between the "evil-eye" and jenoun suggested by the Shawi scribe is to be taken as correct, likely to be disliked by jenoun, the custom of the Ouled Ziane mothers of making alum into paste in their mouths, and putting a little of the paste into each ear of children whose eyes are sore, may perhaps be intended to drive away jenoun who are causing the mischief. I came across another instance of administer- ing medicine by the ear among the Ouled Ziane. When a child has colic some "shih" {Artemisia herba alba) is put into cold water in the evening and the child obliged to sleep out of doors; in the morning a little of the "shih"- water is poured into each of its ears. As " shih " is, I believe, really efficacious as a digestive it is not clear why it is not administered directly, for I have never heard that it is considered useful as a protection against the attacks of jenoun.

-* Lane's Modern Egyptians (" Everyman's Library " ed.), p. 257.