They have no temples, churches, or mosques, no regular worship or
sabbath; but once in three months they have a great festival, which
lasts two or three days, sometimes a week, and is spent in eating
and drinking. He does not know the cause; but thinks it, perhaps, a
commemoration of the king's birth-day; no work is done. They
33 believe in a Supreme Being and another state of existence, and have
saints and men whom they revere as holy. Some of them are
sorcerers, and some ideots, as in Barbary and Turkey; and though
physicians are numerous, they expect more effectual aid in sickness
from the prayers of the saints, especially in the rheumatism. Music
is employed to excite ecstasy in the saint, who, when in a state of
inspiration, tells (on the authority of some departed saint,
generally of Seedy Muhamed Seef,) what animal must be sacrificed
for the recovery of the patient: a white cock, a red cock, a hen,
an ostrich, an antelope, or a goat. The animal is then killed in
the presence of the sick, and dressed; the blood, feathers, and
bones are preserved in a shell and carried to some retired spot,
where they are covered and marked as a sacrifice. No salt or
seasoning is used in the meat, but incense is used previous to its
preparation. The sick man eats as much as he can of the meat, and
all present partake; the rice, or what else is dressed with it,
must be the produce of charitable contributions from others, not of
the house or family; and every contributor prays for the patient.