Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/495

 Folklore of the Algerian Hills and Desert, i 87

the other side of the curtain, the mothers of the patients being the only women present upon the men's side. The mothers sat quiet in a corner, averting their eyes while the operations were carried out. Seated, as we were, upon an up-turned box within a few inches of the patient's head, we had an admirable opportunity of observing the actual operation in detail. The magical precautions taken to prevent possession of the infants by Jenun were the firing of the guns, a threat or warning to these demons, subject as they are to death, and the passing around the patient's body and the sprinkling over his head of salt, a substance well known to be disliked by Jenun in general.

The magical value, if any, of the dressings applied to the wound is, however, less easy to determine. At first glance it seems likely that the egg may be applied to the wound as being considered an emblem of fertility. But Professor Westermarck in his very exhaustive researches into the marriage ceremonies of both Berbers and Arabs of Morocco ^ has been unable to obtain evidence that the eggs which are used in those ceremonies — and, as we shall see, at Shawiya marriages as well — are so used as emblems of fertility at all ; and I have found, during my investigations of the medicine and surgery of the Aures, that the white of a raw egg is used as a dressing for cuts and burns by natives who practise medicine and not magic. Melted butter is the dressing most commonly applied to all wounds in Algeria : the powdered leaves of Juniperus phoenicea are widely employed in medicine in the Aures : while the natives regard goat's dung as a valuable styptic. The dressings which I have described as used in circumcision, therefore, may well be considered to possess practical rather than magical values.

Persons are believed to be very liable to possession by Jenun on the occasion of their wedding. The wedding •ceremonies of the Aures are very similar to those described ^ Westermarck, Marriage Ceremonies in Morocco.