Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/481

 Folklore of the Al^erimi Hills and Desert, i 75

The malevolent spirits which occupy blood spilled upon the ground are not aggressive unless disturbed. Should a mortal accidentally step into or over a pool of blood its Jinn will enter into him, with the result that he will fall ill or suffer some reverse of fortune ; but it seems that the spirit will not leave the blood to attack a person who care- fully avoids touching it. Blood spilled, however, should immediately be covered with earth. It appears that I myself have offended a number of Jenun and am now suffering in consequence. This circumstance was brought to my notice two years ago by my friend Mr. P. P. H. Hasluck, who learned of it in conversation with some Arab friends. These people stated that my thinness is due to the fact that I am in the habit of spending a good deal of time in hunting the Barbary sheep and the two species of gazelle obtainable in the neighbourhood of El Kantara. These, with all other wild animals, are the property of Jenun who, annoyed at my disturbance of their cattle, are causing me to lose flesh, and will, doubtless, eventually destroy me unless I give up shooting.

Empty houses are a favourite resort of Jenun, who are apt to resent intrusion into them. The grandfather of one of my El Kantara friends was once asked to sleep in such a house for its protection. In the night a female form, attired in a black robe, appeared and forthwith attacked him, hitting him a heavy blow on the thigh. Had he not invoked the aid of a Moslem saint, whose tomb is in the oasis of El Kantara and who himself sometimes appears in the shape of a lion by night, he would have been slain by his assailant, even as it was the wound in his thigh sup- purated for six months and was only cured as a result of visits to the saint's mosque every Friday.

Some Jenun are very easily provoked to acts of violence. An Arab who was unable to send home before nightfall the whole of the dates which he had gathered during the day, remained all night in his garden to protect the fruit that