426 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap LXVI. 
the eleventh century of our era ; but we learn from 
the eminent Andalusian geographer El Bekri, who 
finished his work on Africa in the year 1067, that 
while the king was a Moslim by law, receiving at his 
accession to the throne, as emblems of his authority, 
a sword, ring, and a copy of the Kuran, which were 
said to have been sent by an Emir el Mumemn (from 
Egypt), the greater part of the inhabitants even of the 
capital, at that time, were still addicted to paganism*; 
and we may fairly conclude from the description of 
Leo Africanus, and from what we observe in Negro- 
land at the present day, that even during the time of 
the A'skias, the greater part of the natives of the 
country were idolaters, at least in heart and supersti- 
tious usages. However, it would seem as if they had 
received, in more ancient times, several institutions 
from the Egyptians, with whom, I have no doubt, 
they maintained an intercourse, by means of the ener- 
getic inhabitants of Aiijilaf , from a relatively ancient 
period ; and among these institutions I feel justified 
in reckoning the great care which the Songhay be- 
stowed upon their dead. We see that even those 
among their kings who died in the very remotest 
part of the empire were transported with the greatest 
trouble to the capital, in order to be buried there 
with due ceremony. For instance, Sonni 'All had died 
in Gurma; but his sons, who accompanied him on 
the expedition, took out his entrails, and filled his 
* El Bekri, ed. de Slane, p. 183. 
f See El Edrisi, trans. Jaubert, i. p. 288. 
