50 ANIMISTIC ELEMENTS IN MOSLEM PRAYER 



"In Tunis and Tripoli," Major Treamarne tells us, "if 

 there is no rain, and the crops are being ruined, the Arabs 

 go in procession outside the city with drums and flags, and 

 pray for rain, and, according to Haj Ali, cows are made to 

 urinate and the roofs of houses are wetted with water by the 

 Arabs and Hausas with them as a means of bringing down 

 rain. But if there is no result the negroes are summoned to 

 use their magic." 



"In Northern Nigeria, amongst the Magazawa of Gobir, 

 the rain was made to fall and to cease in the following- 

 manner, according to Haj Ali. The rain-makers were nine 

 in number and would go round with wooden clubs to a 

 tsamiya (tamarind) or a ganje (rubber) tree near the gate of 

 the town, and sacrifice a black bull, the blood being allowed 

 to flow into the roots. Then four pots of giya (beer) were 

 brought, and were drunk by the rain-makers. After this, 

 the eldest of the nine (Mai-Shibko) would rise, put on the 

 hide and call out: "You Youths, You Youths, You Youths, 

 ask the man (Allah) to send down water for us, tell the 

 Owner of the Heavens that men are dying here, ask him to 

 spit upon us. " The eight others would rise and stand around 

 the old man, and call out in a loud voice what they had been 

 told to say, and add: "If you do not send the rain we will 

 kill this old man. We are true to you, see, we iiave sacri- 

 ficed a bull to you." Then brandishing their weapons in 

 the air, they would continue: "If you do not send down 

 the rain we will throw up our clubs at you."* 



Eegarding prayers for rain offered up by the Moham- 

 medans in China we glean the following from the Revue du 

 Monde Musulman. (Vol. 26; 89, article by G. Cordier) : 

 "A procession is formed headed by the ahong, or priest, 

 carrying three objects which I will here describe : 



(1) A sack filled with 7,000 stones, very clean and 

 which have been gathered from the bed of some river near 

 by. These may be said to represent a sort of rosary as ten 

 prayers are repeated over each stone. 



(2) A sword of the shape employed in the mosques but 

 without a sheath. On the handle of this sword is inscribed 

 the words jiao-kien, i.e. the "precious sword," and in Arabic 

 the creed. This sword is made of wood and is covered with 

 inscriptions in Arabic characters and carried in a case made 

 of yellow linen. 



(3) A tablet made of brass. The Chinese call it Chao 

 -p'ai, that is to say the "Tablet that is planted." The 



'The Ban of the Bori : pp. 185, 189. 



