In the heart of the villages nestled in the Atlas Mountains, residents have long been careful not to hang out in the streets at nightfall. After long days spent tending herds, cultivating the land or taking care of livestock, the villagers return to their homes, exhausted. At sunset, they empty the spaces for another reason as well: the presence of a woman, half-human, half-djinn, or perhaps more: a monster.
According to legend, she was once a devoted wife, living happily with her husband. But like many local horror stories, the happy ending didn’t last. Rather than feeling sorry for herself like many widows, after losing her husband, she found a lover.
Having become cursed, she would have been transformed into a beast. Some Amazigh tribes say that it became a giant mule, wandering through cemeteries, terrifying villages at night. Others maintain that she became half woman, half mule or mare, hence the name “Tagmart n Ismdal”, or even “Taserdunt n Ismdal”. The first term means “cemetery evil” in the Souss region, while the second means the cemetery mule.
This creature therefore haunted cemeteries by appearing at night, to attack loners, those who dared to venture into the streets after dark, or those who defied social norms. Most of the victims would be men, according to ethnographers who based themselves on various versions of this story which is a popular myth.
“Every cemetery had a jenniya who appeared in the evening, incarnated as a mule,” writes Finnish sociologist Edward Westermarck in his book “Ritual and Belief in Morocco.” Westermarck, who spent twenty-eight years in Morocco from 1898 to 1926, learned about local customs and superstitions, including this legend.
Haunted cemeteries in villages
This creature is “very rarely seen”, but many have reportedly heard its murmur, which resembles the cry of an ordinary mule. She would also wear an object around her neck, producing a clicking sound of silver or iron, reports Westermarck.
Often, those unfortunate enough to have seen or heard it would have fallen ill, gone mad or died. Between Al Hoceïma and Nador, the Rif tribe of Aït Temsaman calls it “tasadunt imdran”, literally “the cemetery mule”. In Iglwa or Glaoua, in the High Atlas, it is said that if someone sees her and tries to mount her, she takes them to the cemetery and digs their grave with her feet.
Also according to legend, a pasture owner near a cemetery suspected that an animal came to graze on the grass every day. Determined to unravel the mystery, he spent the night there, seeing a very fat mule approaching. The man’s attempt to tame the beast would have been in vain and it would have run towards the cemetery, starting to dig in the ground. After managing to escape, the owner is said to have climbed a tree and stayed there until morning prayers, when the evil spirits disappear.
Westermarck also heard of people taken to the cemetery by the mule, but who survived his malicious attempts. In Aglou, a small town in the Souss region, the inhabitants rather speak of a mare. At night, he would be heard making noise with an iron chain in the cemetery. But it is only the “bad people” who would hear these movements, who would kill some in fear, he notes.
It is said that this mule-djinn is familiar even in cities. In Fez, the jenniya is known as “Bghilt Lil,” or “the little mule of the night.” She appears in the evening, her body covered in gold. If someone tries to attack her to steal her valuables, she knocks him down, unless he is carrying a book with Koranic verses or a dagger, which scares her.
In other parts of the country, it is said that “Baghlat Laqbur” (the jinn-mule of the tombs) devours people and disappears at dawn, only to return at nightfall.
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