Chap. LXVI. INTERCOURSE WITH EGYPT. 427 
inside with honey, in order that it might be preserved 
from putrefaction.* The remains of A'skia Daiid 
were transported all the way from Tindirma to Gagho 
in a boat. Even in the case of the slaughter of dis- 
tinguished enemies, we find strict orders given to 
perform towards them the ceremonies usual with the 
dead. 
The attention thus bestowed upon the dead seems 
not to have been in consequence of the introduction 
of Islam, but appears rather to have been tradition- 
ally handed down from the remotest antiquity. Never- 
theless, it is clear that the adoption of Islam exercised 
considerable influence upon the civilisation of these 
people, and we even find a Medreseh mentioned in 
Gagho f, an establishment the institution of which we 
have probably to assign to El Haj Mohammed, who, 
while on his pilgrimage to Mekka, solicited the ad- 
vice of the most learned men in Egypt, and especially 
that of the sheikh Jelal e' dm e' Soyiiti, as to the best 
method of propagating the Mohammedan religion in 
his own country. 
The influence of learning and study, even in the 
royal family, is apparent enough from the example of 
the pretender Mohammed BankoriJ, who, when on 
his march to Gagho, ready to fight the king El Haj 
A'skia, was induced by the kadhi of Timbuktu, whom 
he by chance visited, to give up his ambitious designs 
* Journal of the Leipsic Oriental Society, p. 532. 
f Ibid. p. 527, from the year 936 a. h. 
} Ibid. p. 541. 
