Moroccan magic

The following are a few recipes for this  magic cooking. In order to separate a couple who love each other, the rival procures the gall of a crow, some stork's dirt and some owl's droppings, the remains of the meal eaten by seven persons who are keeping the fast, some laurel root, a piece off a blind Jew's cap, the temporal lock of a negro, and some bones of a carcase. She burns it all up in a new cooking-pot which serves as a retort, and mixes up a little of the ashes with the man's food.

Arabic beliefs

Roses and orange blossom are born of the Prophet's tears.

The pomegranate-tree was born of the flowers scattered by Lalla Fatima Zohra, daughter of the Prophet, when she heard of the death of her sons, Hossein and Hassan.

The narcissus, which is called Khenoum Enebi, the nasal mucus of the Prophet, sprang up one day when he blew his nose with his fingers.

 The oleander is the child of the spittle of Lalla Fatima Zohra. Her husband, Sidna Ali, the Lord Ali, took a second wife. When she saw her coming into the house Lalla Fatima spat upon the ground in contempt. The oleander sprang up at once.