fantastical architecture. To these tombs, called
likewise marabouts, the devout repair in crowds, and
are accosted by the deceased through the organs of
his surviving representatives, who dwell within the
walls of the tower, and artfully contrive to increase
the holy reputation of their predecessor, as well as
their own profits. The walls of their tombs are
covered with votive tablets and offerings to the deceased,
consisting of fire-arms, saddles, bridles, stirrups
and baskets of fruit, which no profane hand is allowed
to touch, because the departed saint may choose to
appropriate the contents to his own use, and by emptying
the basket, acquire fresh claims to the veneration
of the credulous. Some of these jugglers generally
accompany the armies, when they take the field, feeding
the commanders with promises of victory, making the
camp the scene of their mummeries and impostures, and
dealing in amulets, containing mystic words, written
in characters, which none but the marabout who disposes
of them can decipher. According to the price
of these amulets, they have respectively the power
of shielding the wearer from a poniard, a musket shot
and cannon ball, and there is scarcely a man in the
army, who does not wear one or more of them round
his neck, as well as hang them round that of his horse
or camel. Miraculous indeed is said to be the
efficacy of their written characters in cases of sickness,
but the presence of the marabout himself is necessary,
in order that the writing may suit the nature of the
disorder. When the disease is dangerous, the writing
is administered internally, for which purpose they
scrawl some words in large characters, with thick
streaks of ink round the inside of a cup, dissolve
the ink with broth, and with many devout ceremonies
pour the liquor down the sick man’s throat.
These impostors have always free access to the beys
and other high dignitaries of the state; and with
regard to the former, in public audiences they never
kiss his hand, but his shoulder, a token of distinction
and confidence granted only to relations and persons
of importance.
In their religion, the Africans labour under the disadvantage
of being left to unassisted reason, and that too very
little enlightened. Man has, perhaps, an instinctive
sentiment, that his own fate and that of the universe
are ruled by some supreme and invisible power, yet
he sees this only through the medium of his wishes
and imagination. He seeks for some object of
veneration and means of protection, which may assume
an outward and tangible shape. Thus the African
reposes his faith in the doctrine of charms, which
presents a substance stamped with a supernatural character,
capable of being attached to himself individually,
and of affording a feeling of security amid the many
evils that environ him. In all the moorish borders
where writing is known, it forms the basis of Fetisherie,
and its productions enclosed in golden or ornamented
cases, are hung round the person as guardian influences.