TWO GREAT MOORISH RELIGIOUS DANCES 779 
of the dance closed themselves within 
their houses; at a later date, when the 
Christian dared to go forth, he was fre- 
quently pulled from his horse and mal- 
treated by the population, which had 
been worked into an anti-Christian 
frenzy by the religious fervor of the 
dancers, and at the present time the 
Christian may pass freely from one spot 
to another during the dance, provided 
he is careful not to pass through the 
throng of dancers themselves. If he 
were to do this he would undoubtedly, 
unless help were at hand, meet the death 
which comes to the dog who tries to 
pass through the dancing circle and 
which is torn to pieces by a score of 
crazy hands. 
Gradually, in civilizing Tangier, the 
frenzy of the dance is being done away 
with by the unrecognized influence of 
the Christian. One year a slight control 
is exerted on one side, the next year 
upon the other, and this, after many 
years, has caused it to be safe for the 
Christian to watch the dance at close 
quarters. 
Coming only once a year and lasting 
only a few hours, few persons not resi- 
dent ie ‘Tangier or other Moroccan 
towns see either of these dances. The 
tourist who is lucky enough to be in 
Tangier while one of them is in progress 
goes away. with a mtich different impres- 
sion of things Moroccan than Le who has 
not seen them, and with cause, for not 
only is the aspect of the populace en- 
tirely changed, not only are the streets 
and roofs of houses thronged with white- 
robed and veiled-faced women and by 
men in brilliant new garments, but there 
is a thrill in the air—a thrill that causes 
peculiar little shivers to go up and down 
the spinal column of the foreigner. Some 
tourists when they first view the dance 
are weak enough to be overcome by the 
thrill and the heat and the strangeness 
of it all and to faint. 
The Aisawa are followers of one 
M’Hammed Ben Aisa, a saint who lived 
about two centuries ago, in the reign of 
the great Mulai Ismail. M’Hammed Ben 
Aisa was a poor man who knew not the 
feeling of gold. One evening, returning 
from prayer, he was met by a very much 
excited wife, who told him a tale which 
caused him to run with great haste to 
his home, and there, sure enough, was 
confirmation of the peculiar story that 
she had been jerking out to him during 
their homeward trip. A jar full of gold 
she had in some strange manner drawn 
from the well while trying to draw a jar 
of water. 
Presumably M’Hammed Ben Aisa and 
his wife spent much of that night lower- 
ing the jar into the well and drawing it 
up again. History does not say whether 
there was any more gold in the well, but 
it does say that M’Hammed Ben Aisa 
got enough sleep to have a vision, in 
which he was commanded to form a 
brotherhood in the name of Allah. 
Thus was founded the Aisawa broth- 
erhood which gathers at Maknez, the 
home of their founder, some thirty miles 
from Fez, where there is a shrine to the 
saint, M’Hammed Ben Aisa. ‘To attend 
this gathering members of the brother- 
hood come there from Algeria, from 
Tunisia, and less frequently from Egypt. 
They are supposed to dance most of the 
way. As a matter of fact they dance 
only through the larger cities. 
They are supposed to eat alive any 
_ animal which crosses their path; but this 
has been gradually modified until it ap- 
plies only to animals which are more or 
less edible, and still it is said they eat 
many things which the ordinary person 
cannot eat, such as red-hot coals, thorns, 
and poison, for they are supposed to be 
immune from the effect of poisons. But 
at the gathering at Maknez, which is at- 
tended by thousands of the brotherhood, 
there is feasting aplenty, and the sheep 
which are eaten are numbered by the 
thousands. After two days of feasting 
the dancers bid each other farewell until 
the following vear. 
The complete possession of the city of 
Maknez once each year by the followers 
of M’Hammed Ben Aisa is somewhat in- 
teresting, in view of the fact that the old 
