32 MR. H. E. STAPLETON ON SAL-AMMONIAC : 



straightway fell into a burning fever ; if it were stabbed with a knife, he felt the pain of 

 the wound.'" Such was a typical form of the enchantment. 



These and similar rites were only too familiar to the inhabitants of Western Asia in 

 pre- Islamic times ;" they survive in the East to the present day ; and one effect on popular 

 imagination is seen in the care that is still displayed even amongst civilised races in the 

 disposal of shorn hair. An excellent illustration of this is the peculiar ceremony called 

 'Aqlqah 3 ( ib&c ) that is observed in every Muhammadan household soon after a child's 

 birth. 



Amongst Bengali Sunnis of good family, the ' Aqlqah ceremony is generally performed 

 on the seventh day after birth. 4 Instances are also known of the fortieth day being chosen, 

 but this variation is probably due to the fact that the fortieth day marks the end of the 

 mother's ceremonial impurity. As this is always celebrated by another festival called 

 Chilla ( Xa. ). a combination of the two ceremonies is obviously useful in reducing the 

 necessary expenditure to a minimum. 



Early in the morning on the day selected, the members of the family assemble, and 

 in their presence the family barber completely shaves the child's head. The shorn hair 3 

 is carefully weighed against an equal weight of gold and silver 6 and then wrapped up with 

 the latter in a pan-leaf. 



Meantime a sacrifice has been got ready. This consists of two goats (or sheep) 7 in the 



1 The ancient Egyptian procedure (Maspero, apud Frazer, Golden Bough, I, p. 15.). 



2 E.g. Frazer, op.cit., I, p. 377. 



8 From 'Aqqa (/iS*) to cut, referring either to the child's hair or to the animal's throat. The 'Aqlqah is not mentioned in 

 the Qur'an, but is connected with pre-Islamic times by reliable tradition. Thus Ibn 'Abidln gives on the authority of Abu Da'ud 

 (f 88S A.D.) the following statement of Buraydah, one of the Companions of the Prophet, " We used, in the time of ignorance, when 

 children were born to us, to slay sheep and rub the child's head with the blood ; but when Islam came, we sacrificed a sheep on the 

 seventh day, and shaved the child's head and rubbed saffron on it." Qutadah, another Companion (quoted by Majdu-d-dln 

 al-Firiizabiidi), corroborates this by his statement that until the practice was forbidden by Muhammad, a handful of the goat's hair 

 used to be dipped in the blood and smeared over the boy's hair before his head was shaved. 



The use of saffron seems to have died out in Bengal, but Ja'far Sharif states that it is customary in Southern India — presum- 

 ably in the neighbourhood of his native-place, Ellore. The saffron, however, is there applied to the child's head after the barber 

 has done his work. The practice of the Muhammadan Malays, who probably drew their religious beliefs from Southern India, 

 is much nearer the original, as when they perform the 'Aqlqah, a red lather is rubbed over the child's head before shaving off the 

 hair (Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 341). 



[Dr. Annandale, who has visited the extreme S.E. corner of India— Ramnad in the Madura district— since this paper was 

 written, informs me, on the other hand, that the ignorant Muhammadan sect of ' Lubbais ' of that part of India only use oil, or a 

 mixture of oil and sandalwood. This is rubbed on after the boy's head has been shaved. Ja'far Sharif also notes this substitution 

 of sandalwood for saffron, as customary amongst people who cannot afford the more expensive saffron, — Sept. 20th, 1905.] 



* Ibn 'Abidln states that Muhammad performed the ceremony on himself after becoming a Prophet, but, subsequently, when 

 his grandchildren Hasan and Husain were born to Fatimah and 'Ali, he used the seventh day after birth for its observance. 

 Traditionists, however, agree that 'Aqlqah can be lawfully performed at any time up to the age of puberty. Robertson Smith 

 (Religion of the Semites, p. 330), is of the opinion that the 'Aqlqah was originally aceremony of initiation into manhood, and that 

 the transference of the ceremony to infancy was a later innovation. 



6 So far as I can ascertain, no analogous practice exists amongst Bengali Mussalmans with regard to the first parings of a 

 child's nails. They are simply thrown away. 



* A few filings of gold and a two-anna piece. According to the Imam Muhammad Ash-Shaybani (f 804 A.D. He was a 

 pupil of the jurisconsult Abu Hanifa, who died in 767 A.D.), the hair of Hasan and Husain was weighed against silver, which was 

 then given to the poor. The traditionists Miilik (t 795 A.D.) and SJiifi'I (f 820 A.D.) state, on the other hand, that it is prefer- 

 able to weigh the hair against both silver and gold (Majdu-d-dln al-FlruzabSdl). 



7 Females or geldings ; not, as Ja'far Sharif states, males. 



