50 



example to many of our lukewarm Christians at home by the solemnity 

 and fervency of their devotions. Five times a day they turn their faces 

 to the east, the quarter of the globe in which Mecca lies, and offer up 

 their devotions to the prophet. Repeating passages from the Koran, 

 kneeling down, and rubbing their foreheads to the earth, and passing 

 through their fingers the beads of the Kumboloio,- which are ninety- 

 nine in number. From these Mallems the Galadimos (or Prime 

 Ministers), are usually selected, and their titles to this distinction are 

 generally founded on the judgment formed by the Sultan of their abili- 

 ties and information on matters without the pale of their priestly duties. 



Of the lady Filatahs whom we saw at Hamarruah, it would be 

 impossible for me to speak in terms too eulogistic of the impression 

 their appearance made upon me. ' As we walked from the Galadimos 

 house, on the morning of our conference, to the Sultan's palace, groups 

 of them were here and there in the streets, gazing at us with a simple 

 expression of wonderment (for they had never seen European faces 

 before), that had not the slightest tinge of impertinent curiosity in it. 

 The deep bronze colour of their features, the Grecian outline of coun- 

 tenance, on which there was a beaming expression of a suavity of 

 trusting gentleness, combined with a tint of joyfulness, brought to my 

 mind the beautiful expression of L. E. L., of " half-smiles born of no 

 cause, but the very buoyancy of inward gladness." With this, their 

 neat blue wrappers covering their whole frame, and their hair tastefully 

 arranged, gave them a superior appearance from what African women 

 are usually supposed to have. At Zhibu we saw some negro Filatah 

 ladies, ornamented by having larger perforations in the cartilages of 

 their ears, in which a piece of carved ivory, lead, or camwood was 

 usually thrust, (I suppose as the conventionalities of the haut ton fluc- 

 tuated in their city) ; and some of these had brass naUs in their noses, 

 the flat head being placed external to the ala, and the stem of the 

 nail curved towards the ear of the same side. 



The "revelling in strange and fantastic creations," which Baron Von 

 Humboldt writes of, as existing in nations least advanced in civiliza- 

 tion, was perceptible to us every day. Faith in fetishes and ju-jus : a 

 belief that a scrap of paper, on which is transcribed a passage from the 

 Koran, if sewn up in leather and suspended round the neck, will insure 

 its wearer from harm — bestow upon a barren woman the faculty of 

 conception — and enable a slave-hunter to make a successful foray, is 

 the most common matter of doctrine with them. Our Houssa inter- 

 preter told me of the Yoruba people's believing that white men possessed 



* The Turkish name for the Mahommedan rosary. 



