past five years been teaching in the College of France, and said, "le ka' est une sorte de double de la personne humaine d'une matiére moins grossière que la matiére dont est forme le corps, mais qu'il fallait nourrir et entretenir comme le corps lui-même; ce double vivait dans le tombeau des offrandes qu'on faisait aux fêtes canoniques, et aujourd'hui encore un grand nombre des génies de la tradition populaire égyptienne ne sont que des doubles, devenus démons au moment de la conversion des fellahs au christianisme, puis a l'islamisme." 4 Other authorities whom Mr. Budge quotes think that the Ka was a genius and not a double. Mr. Breasted thinks that the ka was the superior genius intended to guide the fortunes of the individual in the hereafter. But Mr. Budge goes on to say: "The relation of the ka to the funerary offerings has been ably discussed by Baron Fr. W. v. Bissing (Versuch einer neuen Erklarung des Ka'i der alten Aegypter in the Sitzungsberichte der Kgl. Bayer. Akad., Munich, 1911), and it seems as if the true solution of the mystery may be found by working on the lines of his idea, (which was published in the Recueil, 1903, p. 182), and by comparing the views about the double' held by African peoples throughout the Sudan. The funeral offerings of meat, cakes, ale, wine, unguents, etc., were intended for the ka; the scent of the burnt incense was grateful for it (sic). The ka dwelt in the man's statue just as the ka of a god inhabited the statue of the god. In the remotest times the tombs had special chambers wherein the ka was worshiped and received offerings. The priesthood numbered among its body an order of men who bore the name of priests of the ka' and who performed services of honor of the ka in the "Ka chapel!" Although not in any sense 6 4 The Qarina. The belief in the Qarina shows itself in the common speech of the people. When an Egyptian wishes to send some one away he always uses the expression Rukh-anta-wa-huaca, i.e., Go thou and he. The latter pronoun refers to the man's demon mate or Qarina. an Egyptologist, I believe further light may be thrown on the real significance of ka by what popular Islam teaches to-day. Whatever may be the significance of ka in Egyptology, we are not in doubt as to what Mohammed himself thought of his ka or qarina. In the most famous volume of all Moslem books on the doctrine of jinn, called "Kitab akam al marjan fi Ahkam al Jan" by Abdullah-esh-Shabli (769 A. H.) we read in chapter five as follows: "It is related by Muslim and others from 'Ayesha that the Apostle of God left her one night and that she said, 'I was jealous of him.' Then she said, 'Mohammed saw me and came for me and said, "What's the matter with you, 'Ayesha? are you jealous?"" And I replied, 'Why should one like me not be jealous of one like you?' Then the apostle of God said, 'Has your devil spirit got hold of you?' Then I said, 'O Apostle of God, is there a devil with me?' Said he, 'Yes, and with every person.' Said I, 'And with you also, O Apostle of God?' Said he, 'Yes, but my Lord Most Glorious and Powerful has assisted me against him, so that he became a Moslem."" Another Tradition is given in the same chapter on the authority of Ibn Hanbal as follows: "Said the Apostle of God, 'There is not a single one of you but has his qarina of the jinn and his qarina of the angels.' They said, 'And thou also, O Apostle of God?' 'Yes,' he replied, 'I also, but God has helped her so that she does not command me except in that which is true and good." The Tradition here given occurs in many forms in the same chapter, so that there can be no doubt of its being well-known and, in the Moslem sense, authentic. Here is another curious form of the same Tradition. "Said the Apostle of God, 'I was superior to Adam in two particulars, for my devil (qarina), although an unbeliever, became through God's help a Moslem and my wives were a help to me, but Adam's devil remained an infidel and his wife led him into temptation."" We also find an evening prayer recorded of Mohammed as follows: "Whenever the Apostle of God went to his bed to sleep at night he said, 'In the name of God I now lay myself down and seek protection from him against the evil influence of my devil (qarin, shaitan), and from the burden of my sin and the weight of my iniquity. O God, make me to receive the highest decree.” ... As regards the number of these companion devils and their origin, Tradition is not silent. "It is said that there are males and females among the devils, out of whom they procreate; but as to Iblis, God has created. . . . (The significance of this passage, which is not fit for translation, is that Iblis is an hermaphrodite) . . . there come forth out of him every day ten eggs, out of each of which are born seventy male and female devils. (Ibn Khallikan, quoted in Hayat al-Hawayan, article jinn.) - In another tradition also found in the standard collections it is said that Iblis laid thirty eggs "ten in the west, ten in the east, and ten in the middle of the earth and that out of every one of those eggs came forth a species of devils, such as al-Gilan, al-'Akarib, al-Katarib, al-Jann, and others bearing diverse names. They are all enemies of men according to the words of God. What! will ye then take him and his seed as patrons, rather than we, when they are foes of yours?' with the exception of the believing ones among them." Al-Tabari, in his great commentary, vol. 26, p. 104, says the qarin or qarina is each man's shaitan (devil), who was appointed to have charge of him in the world. He then proves his statement by a series of traditions similar to those already quoted: "his qarin is his devil (shaitan)"; or, according to another authority there quoted, "his qarina is his jinn." (The second form of the word is feminine, the first masculine.) According to Moslem Tradition, not only Mohammed but even Jesus the Prophet had a qarin. As He was sinless, and because, in accordance with the well-known tradition, Satan was unable to touch Him at His birth, His qarin like that of Mohammed was a good one. "On the authority of Ka'ab the Holy Spirit, Gabriel, strengthened Jesus because He was His qarin and his constant companion, and went with Him wherever He went until the day when He was taken up to heaven." (Qusus al Anbiya," by Al Tha'alabi.) Now while in the case of Mohammed and Jesus and perhaps also in the case of other prophets, the qarin or qarina was or became a good spirit, the general teaching is that all human beings, non-Moslems as well as Moslems, have their familiar spirit, who is in every case jealous, malignant, and the cause of physical and moral ill, save in as far as his influence is warded off by magic or religion. It is just here that the belief exercises a dominating place in popular Islam. It is against this spirit of jealousy, this other-self, that children wear beads, amulets, talismans, etc. It is this other-self that through jealousy, hatred and envy prevents love between husband and wife, produces sterility and barrenness, kills the unborn child, and in the case of children as well as of adults is the cause of untold misery. The qarina is believed often to assume the shape of a cat or dog or other household animal. So common is the belief that the qarina dwells in the body of a cat at night-time, that neither Copts nor Moslems would dare to beat or injure a cat after dark.5 Many precautions are taken to defend the unborn child against its mate, or perhaps it is rather against the mate of the mother, who is jealous of the future child. Major Tremearne, who studied the subject in North Africa, says 5 Many stories are related of the terrible consequences that follow beating a cat. These stories are credited even by the educated. ("Ban of the Bori," p. 97): the qarin "does not come until after the child has been actually born, for the sex is not known before that time." And again (p. 131): "All human beings, animals, plants and big rocks, have a permanent soul (quruwa) and a familiar bori of the same sex, and, in addition, young people have a temporary bori of the opposite sex, while all living things have two angels (mala’ika) in attendance. Small stones are soulless, and so are those large ones which are deep in the earth, for they are evidently dead,' else they would not have been buried. The soul has a shape like that of the body which it inhabits, and it dwells in the heart, but where it comes in and out of the body is not known. It is not the shadow (ennuwa), for it cannot be seen, and in fact the ennuwa is the shadow both of the body and of the soul. Yet the word quruwa is sometimes loosely used for shadow, and there is evidently some connection, for a wizard can pick the soul out of it. Neither is it the breath, for when a person sleeps his soul wanders about; in fact, it does so even when a person is day-dreaming." All this, which is descriptive of conditions among the Hausa Moslems of North Africa, closely resembles the belief in Egypt. The jinn of the opposite sex, that is the soul-mate, generally dwells underground. It does not wish its particular mortal to get married. For, again I quote from Major Tremearne, “It sleeps with the person and has relations during sleep as is known by the dreams." This invisible companion of the opposite sex is generally spoken of in Egypt as sister" or "brother." His or her abode is in quiet shady places, especially under the threshold of the house. The death of one or more children in the family is often attributed to their mother's mate, and therefore, the mother and the surviving children wear iron anklets to ward off this danger. Most people believe that the qarina dies with the individual; others that it enters the grave with the body. Although gen |