Almusseri
A nineteenth-century secret society resembling African associations,
with secret rites akin to those of the Cabiric and Orphic
Mysteries. Their reception took place once a year in a
wood, where the candidate pretended to die. The initiates surrounded
the neophyte and chanted funeral songs. He was then
brought to the temple erected for the purpose and anointed
with palm oil. After 40 days of probation, he was said to have
obtained a new soul, was greeted with hymns of joy, and conducted
home.
