Chap. XXIII. THEOLOGICAL DISCUSSION. 
63 
name only those who had no idea of the unity of 
God, and venerated other objects besides the Al- 
mighty God, that it could then be applied only to a few- 
Christians particularly to those of the Greek, and 
to the less enlightened of the Catholic Church, though 
even these venerated the crucifix and the images 
rather as symbols than as idols. But I confessed 
to him that, with regard to the unity of the Divine 
Being, Islam certainly was somewhat purer than the 
creeds of most of the Christian sects ; and I ac- 
knowledged that, just at the time when Mohammed 
appeared, Christianity had sunk considerably below 
the level of its pristine purity. The old man went 
away pleased with what I had told him, and swore 
that he would not again call the English kofar, but 
that with my permission he would still apply that 
name to the " Mosko " (the Russians). 
In the afternoon his son, a man of about five and 
thirty, came to visit me, accompanied by a sherif 
from Ye man, who had been to Bombay, and was 
well acquainted with the English ; he was now on his 
way to Timbuktu, in order to vindicate his right of 
inheritance to the property of a wealthy merchant 
who had died there. In this, however, he was un- 
successful ; and when I reached Timbuktu in Sep- 
tember, 1853, he had left it some time previously with 
broken spirits and in great distress. He perished 
on his way home. He was an amiable and intelli- 
gent man, and visited me several times. From him 
and his companion I received intimation of a large 
