Algeria from withinBodley, R. V. C. (Ronald Victor Courtenay)
History
Algeria from within
Bodley, R. V. C. (Ronald Victor Courtenay)
Algeria -- Description and travel
They maintain that, as angels exist, djinns and other creatures
of the underworld are just as comprehensible, and can be invoked
in the same way to carry out requests. Again and again one will
meet people who will tell you that dragons live, and that there
are people who have seen them and have spoken to them! All sorts
of animals are supposed to bring good or evil luck, and amulets
with the feet of lizards, the feathers of the hoopoe, the tooth of
a jackal, can be seen attached round the necks of babies.
The Koran is always placed in the cradle of the newly born, and
there are people who keep pages of the Holy Book to hire out to
those who can not afford to buy one.
It would take far too long to go into all the details of these
superstitions which are held in reverence all over North Africa, and,
though at first sight they may seem to be much the same as those told
in more civilized countries, they are not really believed elsewhere
to the same extent as in North Africa. I will give an example of
a case of witchcraft which occurred only the other day in a family
which I knew intimately, a family educated and acquainted with the
way of the modern world.
A man tiring of his wife and wishing to marry some one else who
refused to share the home, divorced his first wife, who was devoted
to him. She made no protest, but, with the aid of certain learned
_talebs_, set about weaving spells about her ex-husband. The night
of his wedding the _taleb_ said to the woman:
“Prepare a great feast for all your friends, with music and
dancing, and at midnight your husband will return to you.”
She complied with his instructions, and at the midnight hour there
was a banging on the door, and the husband in a dazed state appeared,
imploring his wife’s forgiveness. She at first refused to see him,
and it was not until he had returned a third time that she allowed
him in.
I made an investigation of the case, and I talked to those involved,
who all corroborated the story. The husband told me that, just as
he was about to see his new bride, he felt himself impelled toward
his first wife. He struggled against the feeling, but in vain,
and before he knew where he was he had left his wedding and was
before the door of his late parents-in-law’s house. All this
was explained, of course, by the working of the spell, and any
contradiction of this was considered as the disbelief of an infidel;
the facts were there, and there was nothing further to be said.
I have known cases where some one has desired to spread discord
in a household, and in a short space of time the discord has
arisen without the mischief-maker speaking a word to the parties
concerned. I have seen men commit the greatest follies and trace
them to the intention of some other person who has invoked the aid
of a djinn.
To my mind the explanation is hypnotism—the effect of strong
will on the mind of some weaker person; perhaps auto-suggestion,
but certainly mesmerism carried out secretly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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