12 illustration(s) from this book
It is believed that the chief abode of the Jinn is in the Mountains of
Ḳáf, which are supposed (as mentioned on a former occasion) to encompass
the whole of our earth. But they are also believed to pervade the solid
body of our earth, and the firmament; and to choose, as their principal
places of resort, or of occasional abode, baths, wells, the latrina,
ovens, ruined houses, market-places, the junctures of roads, the
sea, and rivers. The Arabs, therefore, when they pour water, &c.,
on the ground, or enter a bath, or let down a bucket into a well,
or visit the latrina, and on various other occasions, say,
"Permission!" or "Permission, ye blessed!" ("Destoor! or, Destoor yá
mubárakeen!").[78]--The evil spirits (or evil Jinn), it is said, had
liberty to enter any of the seven heavens till the birth of Jesus, when
they were excluded from three of them; on the birth of Moḥammad, they
were forbidden the other four.[79] They continue, however, to ascend to
the confines of the lowest heaven, and there listening to the
conversation of the Angels respecting things decreed by God, obtain
knowledge of futurity, which they sometimes impart to men, who, by means
of talismans, or certain invocations, make them to serve the purposes of
magical performances. To this particular subject it will be necessary to
revert.--What the Prophet said of Iblees, in the following tradition,
applies also to the evil Jinn over whom he presides:--His chief abode
[among men] is the bath; his chief places of resort are the markets, and
the junctures of roads; his food is whatever is killed without the name
of God being pronounced over it; his drink, whatever is intoxicating;
his muëddin, the mizmár (a musical pipe; _i. e._ any musical
instrument); his ḳurán, poetry; his written character, the marks made in
geomancy;[80] his speech, falsehood; his snares are women.[81]