96 



THE REV. S. M. ZWEMEK, M.A.^ D.D., 



large stone urn, probably a remnant of Grecian civilization. It 

 is badly battered, and rests on the incline of an old and dirty 

 well. This stone urn, they firmly believe, was carried by the 

 saint on his little finger and put here in the Fayoum. Moslem 

 women come on Fridays to bathe in the urn as a cure for all 

 diseases. 



One of the charms which I was allowed to take with me 

 consisted of a double calico bag in which was a bit of paper 

 sewn up with the following inscription : — 



" In the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate, this 

 charm affords an exemption, in the name of God and His 

 Apostle, from Um Mildam (the queen of all the evil Jinn), she 

 who devours flesh and drinks blood and crushes bones. 0 Um 

 Mildam, if you are a Jewess, I forswear you by Moses, the 

 mouthpiece of God (upon Him be peace !) ; if thou art a 

 Christian, I forswear thee by Jesus Christ (upon Him be peace!) ; 

 and if thou art a true believer, I forswear thee by Mohammed 

 the Prophet (upon him be prayers and peace !). If thou art 

 none of these, I will have nothing to do with thee, for God is a 

 good protector and defender through His Apostle." 



There are hundreds of similar saints and tombs in Egypt. 

 Tree-worship, which is so common in nearly every Moslem 

 land, is also undoubtedly connected with the old practices of 

 Arabian idolatry, or was borrowed from other pagan lands. 

 According to Doughty, the traveller, whose observations are 

 confirmed by all those who know the Arabs, the Bedouins look 

 upon certain trees and shrubs as menhals, or abodes of angels 

 and demons. To injure such trees or shrubs, to lop their 

 branches, is held dangerous. Misfortune overtakes him who 

 has the foolhardiness to perpetrate such an outrage. 



Stone-worship is not uncommon in Islam. Stones v/ere used 

 as fetishes in Arabia before Islam, and one may well compare 

 the reverence paid to the Black Stone at Mecca with the 

 worship of aerolites in the Indian Archipelago — as Professor 

 Wilken shows in his chapter on the subject.* 



It is well known that there are other sacred stones in the 

 Hejaz, and not only here but in many lands of the Near East. 

 In Arabia and Egypt I have known of such objects being 

 covered with oil by devotees and forming the centre of weird 

 rites by the women folk at night. In the use of animals 

 (totems) as amulets to guard the house or the place of business. 



* Dr. G. A. Wilken, Eet Animisme (1884-5). 



