DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0043
Si wan Customs
23
Sun, Moon, and Stars. These are consulted by the men who make charms for prog-
nosis in the case of disease or for telling the future. The ordinary Siwi does not pay any
heed to them.
Graves. Graves are also inhabited by the ginns and afrits, and no one dares to sleep
by himself close to a grave. A man’s forehead and arms are frequently used by magi-
cians in their magic, and therefore the rich hire men to sleep on the graves of the dead
for three days to prevent its resurrection.7' When the body putrifies it is no longer use-
ful for magic, and so there is no need of a guard for more than three days.
Ginns and Afrits. In addition to the places mentioned above these spirits live in
shallow pools and for this reason the Siwi never drinks from a shallow pool. Moreover
these spirits may pass into the body of a man in many ways, the most common of which
are through his drinking from a shallow pool, or passing over a drain 73 at night. A cer-
tain drain is known in the town to be inhabited by ginns.
'When ginns enter into a man’s body 79 they must be persuaded to come out, because
they always make the invaded subject ill. The sheikh is consulted. He reads the Koran80
in front of the man, burns incense, and then the ginn begins to speak. He is asked his
77 Corpses play an important role in North African black magic. The dead being unable to speak, to see, or to hear,
can transmit these disabilities. An unfaithful wife may, therefore, use pieces of a cadaver, or objects that have touched
a corpse, in magical rites designed to close her husband’s eyes to her misconduct. The dead matter may even be used
in contagious magic to cause the death of living persons. At Blida a faithless wife, accompanied by another woman
to help her, goes to the cemetery, where the pair disinter a corpse that has been buried that same day. They place
the body in a sitting posture, in which one of the women holds it while the other takes its hands and prepares food
with them. If the unsuspecting husband partakes of this food, it is thought that he will be as submissive to his wife
as the corpse itself —• on the whole as repulsive a piece of black magic as can be found in the Moghreb; E. Doutte,
op. cit., 301 sqq. Other ideas concerning the magical influence of the dead obtain in Egypt, where popular belief
yet reflects the influence of Osirian religion, with its faith in the resurrection of the flesh. Influential Cairene ladies,
until within a few years ago, used, when wanting children, to gain admission to the dissecting rooms of the Khedivial
School of Medicine, where they would walk round the cadavers, touch them, and even, on occasions, steal por-
tions of them. Native women frequently visit the Museum of Antiquities at Cairo in order to walk round the
mummies as a cure for barrenness, just as they circle the Pyramids with the same object. Some years ago the Moham-
madan caretaker of a Moslem cemetery in the Delta was convicted of severing the arms of male corpses and selling
them to peasant women desirous of having offspring. The women used to hide the arms under their beds unknown
to their husbands.
78 Vide supra, n. 73.
79 According to a MS. obtained from a Moroccan magician “the Sunday gnfin will attack a man if he wash him-
self whilst perspiring; the Monday gndn, if he walk on ashes at night; the Tuesday gnfin, if he walk on blood; the
Wednesday gnun, if he walk in a watery place; the Thursday gnfin, if he tread upon them in the dark; ±he Friday
gnun, if he walk in dirt; the Saturday gnun, if he goes out at night in a state of perspiration”; E. Westermarck, op.
cit., p. 259. The reader will recollect that in Arabic the common term for a lunatic is magndn, i. e. one who is ginn-
struck or be-deviled.
80 In Morocco the so-called Gnawa are supposed to stand in an especially intimate relation to the ginn and are
frequently called upon to expel them. E. Westermarck saw some of these practices at Marrakesh, when one of his
servants feigned sickness. A magician from Shs who was called in pressed the man’s thumb, pinched his ear, and
whispered into it passages from the Kuran. He assured Westermarck that it was sometimes necessary to continue
such whispered recitations for hours before the evil spirit would take flight. Passages of the Kuran are also written
upon paper, which is black or colored in accordance with the color of the ginn, and which is then hung round the
patient’s neck, or burnt before his nose. In the latter case it is the smoke from the burning paper that expels the ginn.
E. Westermarck, op. cit., p. 257 sq.; cf. E. Doutte, op. cit., p. 222 sqq.
23
Sun, Moon, and Stars. These are consulted by the men who make charms for prog-
nosis in the case of disease or for telling the future. The ordinary Siwi does not pay any
heed to them.
Graves. Graves are also inhabited by the ginns and afrits, and no one dares to sleep
by himself close to a grave. A man’s forehead and arms are frequently used by magi-
cians in their magic, and therefore the rich hire men to sleep on the graves of the dead
for three days to prevent its resurrection.7' When the body putrifies it is no longer use-
ful for magic, and so there is no need of a guard for more than three days.
Ginns and Afrits. In addition to the places mentioned above these spirits live in
shallow pools and for this reason the Siwi never drinks from a shallow pool. Moreover
these spirits may pass into the body of a man in many ways, the most common of which
are through his drinking from a shallow pool, or passing over a drain 73 at night. A cer-
tain drain is known in the town to be inhabited by ginns.
'When ginns enter into a man’s body 79 they must be persuaded to come out, because
they always make the invaded subject ill. The sheikh is consulted. He reads the Koran80
in front of the man, burns incense, and then the ginn begins to speak. He is asked his
77 Corpses play an important role in North African black magic. The dead being unable to speak, to see, or to hear,
can transmit these disabilities. An unfaithful wife may, therefore, use pieces of a cadaver, or objects that have touched
a corpse, in magical rites designed to close her husband’s eyes to her misconduct. The dead matter may even be used
in contagious magic to cause the death of living persons. At Blida a faithless wife, accompanied by another woman
to help her, goes to the cemetery, where the pair disinter a corpse that has been buried that same day. They place
the body in a sitting posture, in which one of the women holds it while the other takes its hands and prepares food
with them. If the unsuspecting husband partakes of this food, it is thought that he will be as submissive to his wife
as the corpse itself —• on the whole as repulsive a piece of black magic as can be found in the Moghreb; E. Doutte,
op. cit., 301 sqq. Other ideas concerning the magical influence of the dead obtain in Egypt, where popular belief
yet reflects the influence of Osirian religion, with its faith in the resurrection of the flesh. Influential Cairene ladies,
until within a few years ago, used, when wanting children, to gain admission to the dissecting rooms of the Khedivial
School of Medicine, where they would walk round the cadavers, touch them, and even, on occasions, steal por-
tions of them. Native women frequently visit the Museum of Antiquities at Cairo in order to walk round the
mummies as a cure for barrenness, just as they circle the Pyramids with the same object. Some years ago the Moham-
madan caretaker of a Moslem cemetery in the Delta was convicted of severing the arms of male corpses and selling
them to peasant women desirous of having offspring. The women used to hide the arms under their beds unknown
to their husbands.
78 Vide supra, n. 73.
79 According to a MS. obtained from a Moroccan magician “the Sunday gnfin will attack a man if he wash him-
self whilst perspiring; the Monday gndn, if he walk on ashes at night; the Tuesday gnfin, if he walk on blood; the
Wednesday gnun, if he walk in a watery place; the Thursday gnfin, if he tread upon them in the dark; ±he Friday
gnun, if he walk in dirt; the Saturday gnun, if he goes out at night in a state of perspiration”; E. Westermarck, op.
cit., p. 259. The reader will recollect that in Arabic the common term for a lunatic is magndn, i. e. one who is ginn-
struck or be-deviled.
80 In Morocco the so-called Gnawa are supposed to stand in an especially intimate relation to the ginn and are
frequently called upon to expel them. E. Westermarck saw some of these practices at Marrakesh, when one of his
servants feigned sickness. A magician from Shs who was called in pressed the man’s thumb, pinched his ear, and
whispered into it passages from the Kuran. He assured Westermarck that it was sometimes necessary to continue
such whispered recitations for hours before the evil spirit would take flight. Passages of the Kuran are also written
upon paper, which is black or colored in accordance with the color of the ginn, and which is then hung round the
patient’s neck, or burnt before his nose. In the latter case it is the smoke from the burning paper that expels the ginn.
E. Westermarck, op. cit., p. 257 sq.; cf. E. Doutte, op. cit., p. 222 sqq.