348 I'HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO J 783. 



nation, that this disease was now and then to be met with among the chiefs of 

 their nation, and that they knew no cure for it.* I have no reason to discredit 

 their assertion, and what makes it more probable is, that the Mandinga and 

 Bambara nations seem to be nearly related to each other in outward appearance, 

 customs, and language, though not entirely in religious matters ; for many of 

 the Mandingas are Mahometans, which the Bambaras are not. Their languages 



* It is to be observed, that those Marahbuts apply themselves, besides religious matters, to the 

 study of physic ; but only as far as it rests on experience alone, without entering into the investiga- 

 tion of the causes of diseases. They are also often called on by the kings and chiefs to give their 

 opinion in points of law and equity. Most of them are well versed in the Arabic language of the 

 Mauritanic dialect, and they are the only people of letters among the blacks ; for none ot the black 

 nations about Senegal and Gambia have even an alphabet, much less any writings in their own lan- 

 guages. I believe the selling of charms constitutes the greatest part of their revenue : and the more 

 reputation one of them has acquired, the dearer he sells them. Those charms usually consist in no- 

 thing but a few lines taken from the Koran, written on a little piece of paper, which, after being 

 sewed up very nicely in leather or cloth, the buyers wear about their bodies. They are to defend and 

 protect them in dangers ; but, as one charm has only the power of protecting them against one single 

 kind of danger, they are obliged to have a great many of them, in order to have a protection against 

 every probable danger that may befal them ; hence many of the blacks are covered with them in 

 different parts of the body ; and they have such a strong faith in them, that when they are surprized 

 in the night-time by an enemy, they will not take up arms for their own defence, though in the most 

 imminent danger, till they have dressed themselves with those charms, and then they will meet him 

 undauntedly. This faith in charms, however, is a corruption of the Mahometan religion, and the 

 Moors, who live on the north side of the river Senegal, observing it in its purity, make no use of 

 them. The Marahbuts of the black nations, as well as those of the Moors, are also the principal 

 merchants and the most opulent people among them, and the gum trade on the river Senegal is chiefly 

 carried on by those of the Moors. The Marahbuts are also the only people who can travel with any 

 safety into distant kingdoms, which no layman can well do without running the risk of being made a 

 slave. Their religious profession protects them every where ; they are even respected among those 

 nations who are not Mahometans ; and they are considered by them as godly and virtuous people, and 

 men of wisdom. They make proselytes in the Mahometan religion every where ; and I am inclined 

 to believe, that they will extend and spread it in time all over Africa. I have seen some Marahbuts 

 of the Pool or Fool nation at Senegal who were pretty well versed in the old testament, and knew 

 partly the history of the institutor of the new one. One day as I was talking with them on the writ- 

 ings of Moses, happening not rightly to recollect the lineage from Adam to Abraham, one of them 

 flattened the sand, made it even, and drew with his fingers on it the genealogy from Adam down to 

 Jacob, whjch, to the best of my recollection, corresponded with that given by Moses. While he was 

 doing this, I looked at him with pleasure and satisfaction, because it resembled so much the rude 

 simplicity of the earlier ages. The Marahbuts reason in general exceedingly well on such subjects as 

 they are acquainted with ; but they have a way, like the eastern nations, of adducing parables or 

 similes in their arguments which do not always bear the strictest resemblance to the case in hand, 

 though they are very persuasive with such people as are not capable of investigating the points in 

 which they differ from the case in question. I was always much delighted with their conversation, 

 and was often sorry that I was not master of their different languages, and able to converse with 

 them without an interpreter. The Marahbuts of the Moors are more learned and ingenious in every 

 respect than those of the black nations ; but I had not much opportunity of conversing with diem, 

 as Uiey were not allowed to reside on the island. — Orig. 



