On a subsequent occasion, when I met this magician, I induced him to write out the necessary incantations, etc., required for the performance of the mandal. The translation of what he wrote on the paper that he placed on the tahdir’s forehead was as follows:
“We have set forth your propositions, and according to the Koran we beg our Prophet Mohammed to answer our prayer.”
He commenced the incantations by calling on the spirits he was invoking thus:
“Toorsh, toorsh, Fiboos, fiboos, Sheshel, sheshel, Koftel, koftel, Kofelsha.”
The first four names, which are each repeated twice, are those which are written so as to form the frame of the khatim, the first being that at the top, the second the one on the left, the third the bottom one and the fourth that on the right-hand side. The last word, “Kofelsha,” does not appear in the khatim, and may be some word used in magic.
The dawa, or invocation proper, ran as follows:
“Descend this day, Oh! Celestial Spirits, so that he here may see you with his own eyes and talk to you with his own mouth and set before you that which he desires. Descend quickly, and without delay, this very minute. I call on you in the name of Solomon, in the name of Allah the clement and gracious, to obey and to submit yourselves to my orders for the love of Allah. Zaagra zagiran zaafiran hafayan nakeb, Zaagra Zagiran Zaafiran hafayan nakeb, zaagra zagiran zaafiran hafayan nakeb.”
This dawa was repeated over and over again, punctuated occasionally with a loud shout of “Maimun,” which was presumably the name of his own familiar spirit.
The last part of the dawa, which it will be seen is a series of words three times repeated, is untranslatable. It is either the names of some fresh spirits or, more probably, some magical gibberish designed to impress the tahdir and spectator.
He told me that if the séance had not been a failure, and he had been able to get the spirits under his control when summoned, that it would have been necessary for him to have liberated them afterwards by means of a second incantation which he called a saraf (change?), the form of which was as follows: