Merchiche (Groupe Haj Ould Sellam)



The Jilala is an order of dervish musicians known for their practice of trance dancing and spiritual healing. They are called upon to exorcise evil spirits and to purify the heart. The Jilala are particularly useful in curing cases of epilepsy and hysteria, controlling the spirits or demons in possession of the subject through their music and the ritualized gestures of the dance. But mainly the dances are dances of exaltation. At the very peak of intensity special acts are done as part of the dance. Slashing arms and legs with sharp knives, or laying down hard with a heavy belt on an extended forearm or across the back are an accepted part of the ritual. During the first selection on the second side of this recording Farato, the fire-eater, drank a kettle of boiling water, eliciting from the women a wild burst of yu-yus. The instruments used are the shebaba, a long transversal cane flute, which leads the way; the bendir, a handheld drum; and the karkabat which is a double castanet made of metal. On this record there are usually three flutes, six drums, and one pair of castanets. Paul Bowles writes in a short story, 'The Wind at Beni Midar': 'A Jilali can do only what the music tells him to do. When the musicians play the music that has the power, his eyes shut and he falls on the floor. And until the man has shown the proof and drunk his own blood the musicians do not begin the music that will bring him back to the world.' Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.