Again we have an instructive example of the all-prevailing faith in magic in the case of the afflicted woman who came to Jesus in the midst of the crowd, believing that His garments were possessed of mysterious healing virtue (Lk 8", see Plummer, ad loe.). The same idea underlies the narrative of Ac 19'^, where we read that hand- kerchiefs and aprons were conveyed from St. Paul's person to tlie diseased, who were thereby cured, and the demons expelled. A man's clothing was supposed to convey with it some charm or efticacy from the owner. Mohammed was besought to give his shirt that a dead man might be buried in it. The character of the wearer and his clothing were identified in some nivsterious way. Prob- ably in this way we are to interpret the reference to the mantle of Elijali (2 K 2"'"'^ cf. *), and such expressions as 'robe of righteousness,' 'garments of s.alvation' (Is 61'°), 'of vengeance' (59"), etc. See Wellhausen, Reste ', p. 196.
In A rabia sorcery was even employed in digging for treasure. Doughty relates a story that a Moor, who was regarded as specially proficient in magical arts, ' sacrificed to the jdn in the ni^ht a black cock, and read his spells, and a great black fowl alighted beside him. . . . The earth rumbled, and rose as it were in billows, gaping and shutting, and in that earthy womb appeared an infinite treasure ' (Arabia Deserta, ii. p. 103). But we hear even more frequently of counter-spells, whereby the demons were coerced or terrified into im- potence. And this specially applies to the various diseases which the j&n were supposed to inflict. The remedies are in almost every case magical in character, and were carried out by the physician called tabib or wise man, who was, in fact, a magician. The methods of the raagic-healing art were the same as those of the sorcerer who worked the evil. There was stroking and rubbing of the part aflected ; most frequently we have the tying of knots, spitting, and breathing.
'A young mother, yet a slender girl, brought her wretched babe, and bade me spit upon the child's sore eyes. This ancient Semitic opinion and custom I have afterwards found wherever I rame to Arabia [cf. Jn 9*^]. Meteyr nomads in El Kasim have brought me bread and salt that I should spit in it for their sick friends. — Also the Arabians will spit upon a lock which cannot easily be opened" (Doughty, Arab. Dei. i. p. 527). 'Another time I saw Salih busy to cure a mangy theliU (riding-camel). He sat with a bowl of water before him, and, mumbling there- over, he spat in it and mumbled solemnly, and spat many times, and, after a half hour of this work, the water was taken to the sick beast to drink ' {ih, il p. 16-1).
This strange custom may be combined wif'< the prevalent notion that the more repulsive an.* disgusting the remedies, the more eilicaciouB they
SORCERY
SORCERY
603
They will take o( the unclean nnd even abominable, and say, liairii, *' it is medicine." These Hwhniin pive the sick to eat of the i*oX'Aom or smuU white carriun eaj^'le. L'pun a day I found a poor woman of our menzil seething uas&i' dunj; in the pot^ She would ^ive the water to drink with milk to her sick brother '{Doughty, L p. 255).
Mafjic devises strange remedies. The person of tlie kin" has a supornatural character (Frazer, Gvl'len Bough^, \. p. StV.), and it is owing to tliis belief that we constantly find the royal personality or his family invested with a priestly function. Thus in Arabia it was believed that hydrophobia was to be cured by royal blood, i.e. not merely the blood of the reigning monarch, but also that of the royal family. Even sorrow for the dead had its magic remedy. Dust from the grave of the deceased beloved one was to be drunk, mingled with « ater ; and the same remedy was employed as an antidote to love-sickness, for a man who was in love was held to be possessed or bewitched. By the spells of a sorcerer, too, lovers may be parted.
It may here be remarked that the introduction of Islam ditl even less to destroj' belief in m.agic than the growth of Jewish monotheism. We can only say in both ca.ses (that of the Arab and of the Jew) that the belief in spirits entered, as Wellhausen savs of the Arab [ib. p. 157), 'upon another stage.' ' The old gods are deposed and degraded into the position ofdemons. The latter thereby change their character and become hellish creatures, bitterly hostile to Allah and his heavenly surrounding.' Thev became Satans {Shaitdn.s-), with Iblis at tlieir heaJ, opjiosed to prayer and the cry of the muezzin, loving uncleanliness and dirt, and therefore de- barred by washings and the burning of incense.
Consequently sorcery was just as prevalent after Islam as before it. Mohammed placed the interior bark of the Samara tree on the arm of Dhul Bigadain to render him invulnerable. Gum resin from this tree was constantlj- carried as an amulet. The ankle-bones of a hare are effective to ward off the jinn of the camp, the ghoul of the desert, and Satan himself. They are also effective in quelling fever. Similar efficacy belonged to the teeth of a cat or a fo.\. The magic of the knot-tying was encountered by tlie protectiv e spell of the amulet. One species of amulet was called tatiijis (defiling), and contained dirt, bones of the dead, and other repulsive objects. Many amulets, however, con- sisted of ornaments, often precious stones, deemed on this account sacred. Their object seems to be to divert the attention of the demons from the wearer. Thus a mark on the face of a woman, or even tattooing, served this purpose ; also the fragrant berries carried by children, tlie silver and old plates worn by horses, and the bells carried y camels (cf. Zee 14""), which diverted or scared away the demons by their sound. Cf. Wellhausen, Rested, p. 164 ff.