Tagerrabt Song: Ya Salat Alik (We bow to you)

"The tagerrabt is a ahellil where we sit on the ground and whose rhythm is fast". The birth oa a male child, circumcision and the departure of a piligrim for Mecca provide occasions for a tagerrabt which fulfils the same function at family festivities as the ahellil at public festivals. But an invitation to a circle of friends is also a good occasion for the pleasure of singing together.

According to tradition, the tagerrabt used to be reserved exclusively for women. No longer having to worry about the opinion of other people, women prefer gatherings of this kind to ahellil sessions because they are more intimate occasions where their presence is genuinely welcomed by men.

The tagerrabt repertoire may be confused with ahellil songs, although the flute here is replaced by the bingri, a two-stringed lute which in every way resembles the gumbri found in other regions of the Maghrib. Its sound-box is made of half a gourd emptied and covered with rabbit skin. The drum is not compulsory but the handclapping of the singers is always reinforced by strokes on the adgha, a grindstone struck with two pestles, or even a simple flat stone to which increasingly is substituted an empty bottle and spoons, as is here the case.

"Maidens, you are vases for perfume, you are musc and camphor which scent those who use it... Tell him: I too love you but I cannot get to you because of all your guardians..."

"Ya salat 'alik" is a typical example of lyrical poetry still cultivated in Gourara. It is a subtle blending of amorous ecstasy and religious fervour, an appeal addressed by the supplicant to divine mercy (here addressed to Sheik Sidi Mousa) to alleviate his sufferings.