]
In all these Moroccan customs, we are told, the beneficial effect is
attributed wholly to the smoke, which is supposed to be endued with a
magical quality that removes misfortune from men, animals, fruit-trees,
and crops. But in some parts of Morocco people at midsummer kindle fires
of a different sort, not for the sake of fumigation, but in order to
burn up misfortune in the flames. Thus on Midsummer Eve the Berber tribe
of the Beni Mgild burn three sheaves of unthreshed wheat or barley, "one
for the children, one for the crops, and one for the animals." On the
same occasion they burn the tent of a widow who has never given birth to
a child; by so doing they think to rid the village of ill luck. It is
said that at midsummer the Zemmur burn a tent, which belongs to somebody
who was killed in war during a feast; or if there is no such person in
the village, the schoolmaster's tent is burned instead. Among the
Arabic-speaking Beni Ahsen it is customary for those who live near the
river Sbu to make a little hut of straw at midsummer, set it on fire,
and let it float down the river. Similarly the inhabitants of Salee burn
a straw hut on the river which flows past their town.[554]
Further it deserves to be noticed that in Northern Africa, as in
Southern Europe, the midsummer festival comprises rites concerned with
water as well as with fire. For example, among the Beni-Snous the women
light a fire in an oven, throw perfumes into it, and circumambulate a
tank, which they also incense after a fashion.
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