The Gris-gris
A small leather pouch worn on the body, holding written Qur'anic verses, prayers, or magic squares, used across North Africa to protect, heal, or bring fortune, known in the Maghreb as a hirz. In Morocco the hirz was stitched shut by a fqih, a learned man, who wrote the contents in ink, and it was worn at the neck, arm, or belt, its power resting entirely on the writing sealed inside. The same pouch-and-writing custom appears from Senegal to the Sudan under other names, and the French term gris-gris, of uncertain origin, became the colonial-era label for the whole family of talismans. The prac