nd penny-royal. People
expose themselves, and especially their children, to the smoke, and
drive it towards the orchards and the crops. Also they leap across the
fires; in some places everybody ought to repeat the leap seven times.
Moreover they take burning brands from the fires and carry them through
the houses in order to fumigate them. They pass things through the fire,
and bring the sick into contact with it, while they utter prayers for
their recovery. The ashes of the bonfires are also reputed to possess
beneficial properties; hence in some places people rub their hair or
their bodies with them.[552] For example, the Andjra mountaineers of
Morocco kindle large fires in open places of their villages on Midsummer
Day. Men, women, and children jump over the flames or the glowing
embers, believing that by so doing they rid themselves of all misfortune
which may be clinging to them; they imagine, also, that such leaps cure
the sick and procure offspring for childless couples. Moreover, they
burn straw, together with some marjoram and alum, in the fold where the
cattle, sheep, and goats are penned for the night; the smoke, in their
opinion, will make the animals thrive. On Midsummer Day the Arabs of the
Mnasara tribe make fires outside their tents, near their animals, on
their fields, and in their gardens. Large quantities of penny-royal are
burned in these fires, and over some of them the people leap thrice to
and fro. Sometimes small fires are also kindled inside the tents. They
say that the smoke confers blessings on everything with which it comes
into contact. At Salee, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, persons who
suffer from diseased eyes rub them with the ashes of the midsummer fire;
and in Casablanca and Azemmur the people hold their faces over the fire,
because the smoke is thought to be good for the eyes. The Arab tribe
Ulad Bu Aziz, in the Dukkala province of Morocco, kindle midsummer
bonfires, not for themselves and their cattle, but only for crops and
fruit; nobody likes to reap his crops before Midsummer Day, because if
he did they would lose the benefit of the blessed influence which flows
from the smoke of the bonfires. Again, the Beni Mgild, a Berber tribe of
Morocco, light fires of straw on Midsummer Eve and leap thrice over them
to and fro. They let some of the smoke pass underneath their clothes,
and married women hold their breasts over the fire, in order that their
children may be strong. Moreover,