intermediate species between men and angels. There are both good and bad jinn, and they are created from fire. They assume various shapes, grow large and small at will, attack unsuspecting human beings, and are the cause of unending fear in the hearts of multitudes of Moslems who believe in their power over men. The average Moslem in Arabia, India, Iran or North Africa is amply prepared to verify the old tales of the jinn with chapters out of his own experience.
In Calcutta an old Moslem servant threw up his job of pulling the fan, or punkah, which was worked by hand before the days of electricity. The reason he gave was that on the previous night a jinni had hit him a terrible blow on the back of his head, and he would stay there no longer. The truth was that as he was sitting with his back against a brick pillar he fell asleep, and the person for whom he was pulling the punkah awoke in a great perspiration, for the night was terribly hot. Since this was not the first time the old man had stopped pulling, his master rose from his bed, took a bottle of smelling salts and, quietly stealing up behind the pillar, held it under the old man's nose. At the first whiff the old man threw his head back quickly and of course hit it against the pillar. But being entirely unaware of the real cause of all that happened, he believed to his dying day that he had been the victim of some jinni.
Jinn are said to inhabit wells, bath houses, abandoned dwellings and certain secluded regions. The Koran tells of how the jinn were interested auditors
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