478  YRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
Tur Saracens, who over-ran this country, were bigots in 
their religion, as their pofterity continue to be at this day. 
They have preferved the language of the Koran in its an- 
cient purity, and adhere rigidly to the letter of its precepts. 
They either extirpated the Pagans, or converted them; but 
this power and tyranny of the Saracens received a check, 
both in Egypt and Arabia, about the 16th century, by Selim, 
who eftablifhed Turkith garrifons in all their principal 
places on the frontiers of Beja, or Barbaria, and in the Ber 
el Ajam, or ancient Azamia, along the weft coaft of the Red 
Sea. 
Turse Turks were all truly atheifts in their hearts, who 
defpifed the zeal of the Arabs, and opprefled them fo, that 
Paganifm again ventured to fhew its head. The Shillook, 
as Ihave faid before, made an eruption into Beja, and con- 
quered the whole of that country. They became mafters 
of the Arabs, and embraced their religion as a form, but 
never anxioufly followed the law of Mahomet, which did 
not hold out to them that liberty and relaxation by which 
it had tempted the Jews and Chriftians. Thefe the law of 
Mahomet had freed from many reftraints upon pleafures 
and purfuits forbidden by the gofpel, and thus made their 
yoke eaficr. But it was not fo with the Pagan nations. The 
Mahometan religion diminifhed their natural liberty, by 
impofing prayers, ablutions, alms, circumcifion, and fuch- 
like, to which before they were under no obligation. The 
Pagans therefore of Sennaar, and all the little ftates to the wett- 
ward, Dar-Fowr, Dar-Sele, Bagirma, Bornou, and Tombuto, | 
and all that country upon the Niger, called Sudan, trouble 
themfelves very little with the detail of the Mahometan re- 
ligion, which they embraced merely for the fake of -per- 
4 , fonal 
