natural power or as its locus. So the Arabs believed in magical powers which were inherent in or which haunted such objects as stone fetishes, sacred trees, or wells, or which were possessed by certain persons, som e of them human, such as sorcerers, sooth­ sayers, and even poets, but the majority of them non-human. These latter were the jinn, for the belief in whose demoniac nature and powers anthropologists have suggested different origins. This argument is irrelevant in the present context, where it is suflftcient to note that it was connected with what Westermarck describes as "strange and mysterious phenomena which suggest a volitional cause, especially such as inspire men with fear.^ i The magical power emanating from all these objects or beings might be either beneficent, when it was called baraka or "blessing," or maleficent, as, for example, the evil eye. In its crudest form, the old Arabian religion might be summed up a s the endeavor to find and to use the most powerful conveyors of baraka against the ever-present malevolence of evil spirits. But there is no evidence for the existence in Arabia of ritua l cere­ monies corresponding to those of African medicine-men, even although the Arabic word for medicine {tibb) seems primarily to mean incantation. The culminating ritual of Arab paganism was the tribal pilgrimage to a sacred stone at specified times , the worshipers being obliged to observe certain rules in respect of clothing, shaving the head, etc., and certain taboos, th e whole ceremony ending with ritual processions round the shrine, the sacrifice of an animal or animals upon the sacred stone, and a communal sacrificia l meal. In a world so closely besieged by the supernatural, the divine was very near and familiar. At first sight, this would seem to be contradicted by the stark realism imposed upon the Arabs by the physical conditions of their life and reflected in their poetry. As D. B. Macdonald has said "The Arabs show themselves not as especially easy of belief, but as hard-headed, materialistic, ques­ tioning, doubting, scoffing at their own superstitions and usages, fond of tests of the supernatural—and all this in a curiously light-minded , almost childish fashion."^ Yet the contradiction is only formal; scepticism and superstition, as many examples in our day have clearly demonstrated, are the obverse and reverse sides of the same medal.

DOI link for natural power or as its locus. So the Arabs believed in magical powers which were inherent in or which haunted such objects as stone fetishes, sacred trees, or wells, or which were possessed by certain persons, som e of them human, such as sorcerers, sooth­ sayers, and even poets, but the majority of them non-human. These latter were the jinn, for the belief in whose demoniac nature and powers anthropologists have suggested different origins. This argument is irrelevant in the present context, where it is suflftcient to note that it was connected with what Westermarck describes as "strange and mysterious phenomena which suggest a volitional cause, especially such as inspire men with fear.^ i The magical power emanating from all these objects or beings might be either beneficent, when it was called baraka or "blessing," or maleficent, as, for example, the evil eye. In its crudest form, the old Arabian religion might be summed up a s the endeavor to find and to use the most powerful conveyors of baraka against the ever-present malevolence of evil spirits. But there is no evidence for the existence in Arabia of ritua l cere­ monies corresponding to those of African medicine-men, even although the Arabic word for medicine {tibb) seems primarily to mean incantation. The culminating ritual of Arab paganism was the tribal pilgrimage to a sacred stone at specified times , the worshipers being obliged to observe certain rules in respect of clothing, shaving the head, etc., and certain taboos, th e whole ceremony ending with ritual processions round the shrine, the sacrifice of an animal or animals upon the sacred stone, and a communal sacrificia l meal. In a world so closely besieged by the supernatural, the divine was very near and familiar. At first sight, this would seem to be contradicted by the stark realism imposed upon the Arabs by the physical conditions of their life and reflected in their poetry. As D. B. Macdonald has said "The Arabs show themselves not as especially easy of belief, but as hard-headed, materialistic, ques­ tioning, doubting, scoffing at their own superstitions and usages, fond of tests of the supernatural—and all this in a curiously light-minded , almost childish fashion."^ Yet the contradiction is only formal; scepticism and superstition, as many examples in our day have clearly demonstrated, are the obverse and reverse sides of the same medal.

natural power or as its locus. So the Arabs believed in magical powers which were inherent in or which haunted such objects as stone fetishes, sacred trees, or wells, or which were possessed by certain persons, som e of them human, such as sorcerers, sooth­ sayers, and even poets, but the majority of them non-human. These latter were the jinn, for the belief in whose demoniac nature and powers anthropologists have suggested different origins. This argument is irrelevant in the present context, where it is suflftcient to note that it was connected with what Westermarck describes as "strange and mysterious phenomena which suggest a volitional cause, especially such as inspire men with fear.^ i The magical power emanating from all these objects or beings might be either beneficent, when it was called baraka or "blessing," or maleficent, as, for example, the evil eye. In its crudest form, the old Arabian religion might be summed up a s the endeavor to find and to use the most powerful conveyors of baraka against the ever-present malevolence of evil spirits. But there is no evidence for the existence in Arabia of ritua l cere­ monies corresponding to those of African medicine-men, even although the Arabic word for medicine {tibb) seems primarily to mean incantation. The culminating ritual of Arab paganism was the tribal pilgrimage to a sacred stone at specified times , the worshipers being obliged to observe certain rules in respect of clothing, shaving the head, etc., and certain taboos, th e whole ceremony ending with ritual processions round the shrine, the sacrifice of an animal or animals upon the sacred stone, and a communal sacrificia l meal. In a world so closely besieged by the supernatural, the divine was very near and familiar. At first sight, this would seem to be contradicted by the stark realism imposed upon the Arabs by the physical conditions of their life and reflected in their poetry. As D. B. Macdonald has said "The Arabs show themselves not as especially easy of belief, but as hard-headed, materialistic, ques­ tioning, doubting, scoffing at their own superstitions and usages, fond of tests of the supernatural—and all this in a curiously light-minded , almost childish fashion."^ Yet the contradiction is only formal; scepticism and superstition, as many examples in our day have clearly demonstrated, are the obverse and reverse sides of the same medal.