If they are asked for what reason then do they offer up a prayer on the appearance of the new moon, the answer is, that custom has made it necessary, they do it because their fathers did it before them.  Such is the blindness of unassisted nature!  The concerns of this world, they believe, are committed by the Almighty to the superintendence and direction of subordinate spirits, over whom they suppose that certain magical ceremonies have great influence.  A white fowl suspended to the branch of a particular tree, a snake’s head or a few handfuls of fruit are offerings which ignorance and superstition frequently present, to deprecate the wrath, or to conciliate the favour, of these tutelary agents.  But it is not often that the negroes make their religious opinions the subject of conversation; when interrogated in particular concerning their ideas of a future state, they express themselves with great reverence, but endeavour to shorten the discussion by observing, “Mo o mo inta allo” ("No man knows anything about it").  They are content, they say, to follow the precepts and examples of their forefathers through the various vicissitudes of life, and when this world presents no objects of enjoyment or of comfort they seem to look with anxiety towards another, which they believe will be better suited to their natures, but concerning which they are far from indulging vain and delusive conjectures.

The Mandingoes seldom attain extreme old age.  At forty most of them become grey-haired and covered with wrinkles, and but few of them survive the age of fifty-five or sixty.  They calculate the years of their lives, as I have already observed, by the number of rainy seasons (there being but one such in the year), and distinguish each year by a particular name, founded on some remarkable occurrence which happened in that year.  Thus they say the year of the Farbanna war—­the year of the Kaarta war—­the year on which Gadou was plundered, etc., etc.; and I have no doubt that the year 1796 will in many places be distinguished by the name of tobaubo tambi sang (the year the white man passed), as such an occurrence would naturally form an epoch in their traditional history.

But notwithstanding that longevity is uncommon among them, it appeared to me that their diseases are but few in number.  Their simple diet and active way of life preserve them from many of those disorders which embitter the days of luxury and idleness.  Fevers and fluxes are the most common and the most fatal.  For these they generally apply saphies to different parts of the body, and perform a great many other superstitious ceremonies—­some of which are indeed well calculated to inspire the patient with the hope of recovery, and divert his mind from brooding over his own danger—­but I have sometimes observed among them a more systematic mode of treatment.  On the first attack of a fever, when the patient complains of cold, he is frequently placed in a sort of vapour-bath.  This is done