ANIMISTIC ELEMENTS IN MOSLEM PRAYER 49 



In Algeria the usual posture used in prayer for rain is 

 standing only with the elbows bent and palms turned up- 

 wards. Prayers for rain must only be done out of doors 

 and with old clothes on, the burnous being worn inside out 

 to express distress and need. 



For eclipse of the sun a long prayer is made standing 

 with hands down at the side, fingers extended, then a 

 long prayer while the hands are bent on knees. These two 

 positions are repeated with prayer. 



In Yemen, at the first of the year, if there is a drought 

 five cows are brought to a special mosque and each one in 

 turn is driven around the mosque three times by a huge 

 crowd of young men, who constantly pray or recite the 

 Koran. In case of an eclipse water is put in large trays in 

 the open air and the people peer into this water searching 

 for the moon's reflection but this prayer also has been for- 

 gotten. 



In 1917 there was a total eclipse of the moon visible 

 in Egypt. As might well be expected the eclipse greatly 

 excited the Egyptian masses, who were very much impressed 

 by the fact that it coincided with Eamadan and the war. 

 Pans and drums as well as other noise-making appliances 

 were beaten by them as long as the phenomenon was visible, 

 and even after its disappearance, many servants refused to 

 go to sleep on the roofs. 



Among the Turkish Moslems there is a superstition 

 regarding the value of "rain stones" called Yada Rashi, or 

 in Persian Sangi Yada. This superstition dates from before 

 their conversion to Islam but still persists and spread to 

 Morocco. In Tlemcen the Moslems in time of drought gather 

 70,000 peebles which are put in seventy sacks; during the 

 night they repeat the Koran prayers over everyone of these 

 pebbles after which the bags are emptied into the wady with 

 the hope of rain.* 



This service of prayer is also occasionally held in Java, 

 under the name istika; but a more popular method of rain- 

 making is "giving the cat a bath," which is sometimes 

 accompanied by small processions and other ceremonies. 

 "In Acheh, so far as I am aware," says Dr. Snouck 

 Hurgronje, " the actual custom no longer survives, though 

 it has left traces of its former existence in sundry popular 

 expressions. 'It is very dry; we must give the cat a bath 

 and then we shall get rain' say the padi-planters when their 

 harvest threatens to fail through drought." 



*Goldziher in the N old eke Festschrift, Zauber Elements e im 

 Islamischen Ge.bet, p. 316. 

 4 



