EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 
CHAP. XX. 
Mifcellaneous ohfervatlons on Dar-Fur, and fome of the adjacent 
countries. 
The preceding chapters concerning Dar-Fur, contain moflly 
fa(3:s of which I was an eye-witnefs, or received from un- 
doubted authority. But as every information, however minute, 
may either conduce to facilitate farther progrefs in this part of 
Africa, or may perhaps intereft the curious reader, as relating 
to regions little known, I fhall now proceed to fome matters, 
related to me on the fpot, but the accuracy of which I cannot 
pretend to vouch. 
The people of Far are reprefented as ufing many fuperftitious 
ceremonies at the leather'mg of the kettle-drum^ a ceremony 
before mentioned. Among others, it is faid, they put to death, 
in the form of a facrifice, a young boy and girl. Even to this 
day, many idols are worfhipped by the women of the Sultan's 
Harem. The mountaineers offer a kind of facrifice to the 
deity of the mountains, when they are in want of rain. 
Several fuperftitious notions prevail among the flaves. One ' 
of them having died fuddenly, it was imagined that he had 
been poffeffed by the devil, and none of them would wafh the 
R R body. 
