TRAVELS IN THE 
created, the Pagan natives, as well as Mahometans, say a 
short prayer ; and this seems to be the only visible adoration 
which the Kafirs offer up to the Supreme Being. This prayer 
is pronounced in a whisper ; the party holding up his hands 
before his face: its purport (as I have been assured by many 
different people) is to return thanks to God for his kindness 
through the existence of the past moon, and to solicit a con- 
tinuation of his favour during that of the new one. At the 
conclusion, they spit upon their hands, and rub them over their 
faces. This seems to be nearly the same ceremony, which pre- 
vailed among the Heathens in the days of Job.* 
Great attention, however, is paid to the changes of this 
luminary, in its monthly course; and it is thought very un- 
lucky to begin a journey, or any other work of consequence, 
in the last quarter. An eclipse, whether of the sun or moon, 
is supposed to be effected by witchcraft. The stars are very 
little regarded ; and the whole study of astronomy appears to 
them as a useless pursuit, and attended to by such persons only 
as deal in magic. 
Their notions of geography, are equally puerile. They ima- 
gine that the world is an extended plain, the termination of 
which no eye has discovered ; it being, they say, overhung 
with clouds and darkness. They describe the sea as a large 
river of salt water, on the farther shore of which is situated a 
country called Tobaubo doo ; " the land of the white people." 
At a distance from Tobaubo doo, they describe another country, 
* Chap xxxi. ver. 26, 27, 28. 
