To this day I do not know which of Sha Turks says "Ibadet gisli; kababat ANY de meeted means, "worshipping and sinning sary and was more fortunate. The place was a A & moh carpet of grass, a fountain playing MC BY MANY pane trees shading part of the ground. Nad a glistened on the mountain tops. The as ad begun the service before the soft June daylight , det de great crowd had assembled about sunrise, and ay have numbered less than 3000 men, when my friend IN my Aenerable in grey beard, white turban and fur robe, Llt on a flight of stone stairs leading to a ruined place graver, and began to preach. 444 The speaker urged his people to repent of their sins as the first condition of receiving divine favour. "Let us forsake our sins," be said, "and return with all our hearts to God. Let us say, 'O Allah, we have wandered from the right path, we have sinned against thee, but we have no other recourse, and we come back to thee for pardon and blessing."" In any case," he continued, "we can plead with the Almighty not to keep the poor brutes in misery. They have committed no sin, and they deserve no punishment, though we men do. The Almighty once informed his servant Moses that there would be unusual cold and snow the next winter. The prophet informed the people, and everybody laid in an extra supply of wood and charcoal, but the air continued mild and there was no snow. At the end of the season the people turned on Moses and complained: "You told us the cold would be excessive this winter, and we have spent all our money for fuel that we did not need: why is this?' The prophet, greatly ashamed, asked the Almighty for the explanation. He was answered, 'True, I intended to send unusual cold and snow, but a poor mangy dog, footsore and diseased, overheard my remarks. He cried to me, saying: "If the winter is severe what am I to do? These men can warm their houses with wood and charcoal. Other animals have their burrows, at least they have warm coats on their backs, while I have no home and have not even hair to cover me. Where shall I go? Show me a door by which to escape.'" And for the sake of that poor animal the Most High withheld the intended cold and snow." The preacher, with frequent references to the Arabic Koran before him, went on: "We too must cultivate the quality of mercy, and must show it to all, to Christians as well as to Mohammedans, to unbelievers as well as to the faithful. I hear that in yonder distant quarter of the city a poor woman is lying sick in an empty house. We must care for such. In another place I am told a woman's helpless condition becomes a source of temptation to her. We must care for such. "We have fallen upon evil times. Our crops have been thin, our poor have multiplied. Here is an appeal "-he held up the paper-" from a minor official who has had no pay for three months. But the higher officials who employ him have had no pay for six months. We are all suffering together. The officers cannot pay except as they tax people, and the people cannot pay taxes except as God gives us a harvest. May God have mercy upon us, and reform us from all our sins!" And the great congregation cried "Amin, Amin," and rocked to and fro upon their bended knees. "And let us offer our plea," said the mufti, "not only in the name of our Prophet of Exalted Memory, but in the name of Noah, of Abraham, of Moses, and of Jesus, all of Exalted Memory." And 3000 men swaying as one in the morning sunshine replied, "Amin, Amin." A few days later on a horseback ride of fifty miles I found how prayer and sacrifice had been offered in every village, and when I gave myself the pleasure of telling some of the heavy-hearted farmers that the rain was just at hand, for the barometer was falling, their politeness to me could hardly have been greater if I had been the actual cause of the rain. Flocks of lambs are sometimes brought to such services that their bleating may ascend to the Lord's ears and move his Heart to pity. Sometimes they "read" from a sacred book over several stones, place them in a pond or tank of water for three days, and then, if rain has not come in the interval, repeat the ceremony. This, I suppose, is sympathetic magic, and perhaps there is also the idea of breaking the spell of some evil eye. Similarly, they place a toad in a sieve or basket, douse it plentifully with water, and eucy or food to the boys who carry it about. A more acre measure is to burn a snake, "for they say if you burn a stain will come undoubtedly.” Que custom is for a man or boy to wrap himself in a blanket with a rope tied round his waist. The rope is held by a second man, and together they parade the streets. "What does omena ask for?" says the second to his companion, who impersonates Jejoumena, whatever that may mean. “Jejoumena 4ks rain of heaven and money of men," is the answer. People rom their windows and house-doors then give small presents of money to the Jejoumena and pour pails of water over his head in imitation of a rainstorm. Sometimes a broom is dressed up instead of a human being, marched about and soused with water. The most peculiar combination of horse-play with such a pathetic appeal to the mercy of God consists in dressing a donkey like a bride with silk drawers, gold fillet across the forehead, etc. Then a kind of carnival crowd escorts the animal through the streets, the idea being to shame the clouds into doing their duty, to show the clouds that their conduct is as unnatural as it would be to substitute a donkey for a real bride. As the crowd escorts its monstrosity they shout a ditty which may be roughly rendered by: Pitter, patter, Lord give rain; Can the earth in drought abide? Let rains and barns be unconfined; The madramag is evidently some evil spirit or evil eye. Turkish officials have recently in some cases prohibited these Coatset ceremonies, and it is only a question of time when faith in God will find truer outlets for its expression, and such customs wil be a thing of the past. G. E. WHITE, Anatolia College, Marsovan. A SURVIVAL OF INCUBATION? (In the Abruzzi.) WITH PLATE VII. THE festival of the Madonna della Libera is held on the first Sunday in May at Pratola Peligna, a few miles from Sulmona. All the preceding day a constant succession of waggons full of country women and parties of pilgrims on foot, singing the Viva Maria as they went, had been passing through Sulmona on their way to the sanctuary of this renowned Madonna, where they would pass the night in the church before taking part in the procession. Early on the Sunday morning we (Don Antonio de Nino, with his wife and niece and myself) reached the foot of the steep road leading from the valley to the little town of Pratola Peligna, which stands on an eminence facing Mount Morrone, with its hermitage of Celestino V. and the ruins of Ovid's villa, and looking over the fertile valley of Sulmona. The way was crowded with country folk, who had come to look on at the famous procession. Before we had gone many steps upward we could hear strange cries and shouts ahead, and then saw lying in the centre of the road a poor cripple sufficiently uncovered to show his terrible deformity, while a young man, apparently in charge of the cripple, gesticulated and uttered loud cries and appeals for help to the passers-by. A few paces further on was another similar object, also with a lad in attendance, shouting and gesticulating, and all the way up there lay at short intervals at least twenty of these poor deformed creatures, each lying in the centre of the road. Once within the town gates we made our way through the streets, crowded with peasants-the women and older men mostly in the picturesque and distinctive costumes of the different mountain villages of the Abruzzi. Among them we noticed the women of Introdacqua, in dark skirts and bodices, showing the white chemise and sleeves, with embroidered apron, a long white tovaglia or head-cloth covering the shaven heads of the married women; the women of Cocullo and Sulmona in bright coloured skirts and head-kerchiefs, and the stately Eastern-looking Scannesi, in black cloth skirts and high bodices with silver buttons and turban-like head-dress, two, indeed, of them wearing the tokens of mourning, the hair braided with black wool and a black cloth fastened across the lower part of the face, leaving the eyes just visible. The principal street was lined with stalls, where rosaries, sacred pictures, and charms against the evil eye, together with fruit and coloured kerchiefs were exposed for sale. At the door of the large handsome church of the Madonna della Libera stood a man selling coloured pictures of the Madonna, and a woman with fillets of white cotton with coloured flecks to be worn as charms against snake-bite. On entering the church we found the floor covered with the recumbent figures of persons who had been there through the night, and we could only reach the High Altar and the shrine of the Madonna by slowly and carefully making our way through a side aisle where the crowd was less thick and the sleepers had begun to move away. Later on we asked two women if they had dreamt in the church, but they said it had been impossible to sleep on account of the number of folk in the church, and that they had spent the night there simply as an act of devotion. Soon after mid-day the great procession left the church (Fig. 1). The statue of the Madonna della Libera, in magnificent robes and hung with jewels, was borne shoulder-high by four men and accompanied by clergy and officials, and was followed by long rows of women, who, rosary in hand and bearing huge candles, walked in double file through the streets (Fig. 2). Officials, carrying trays to receive the contributions of the faithful, walked beside the cortège, and the front of the Madonna's dress was nearly covered with bank-notes of five and ten lire, offered by her devotees; while close behind the statue a standard was carried on which bank-notes of higher values-50 and 100 lire1— were affixed, offerings in fulfilment of vows made in some time of sickness or trouble. The procession had to make constant halts to enable the offerings to be presented and fastened to the Madonna's dress (Fig. 3), as it passed through the streets and out 1 100 lire £4 sterling. |