184 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
consists in facing the east, and bowing the body 
several times, so as to allow the forehead to touch 
the ground, at the same time repeating some 
short prayers from the Koran, and frequently 
ejaculating the name of the Prophet in the most 
apparently devout manner. 
Had Almamy Amady, in embracing this reli- 
gion, bad and unsound as it is, been actuated by 
any other principle than that of self-interest, 
and the desire of attaching to his cause the 
people of Foota Toro and Jallon, he might have 
(at least by personal example) inspired his sub- 
jects with a reverence for the divine character, 
and an inclination to please him, by a just and 
upright line of conduct, to both which they are 
entire strangers ; evincing, in all their concerns, 
both among themselves and with their neigh- 
bours, a low deceitful cunning, which they en- 
deavour to cloak by religious cant. In fact, I 
have never seen a people who have more of the 
outward show of religion with less of its inward 
influence. 
There are schools in almost every town, for 
the instruction of those youths who intend mak- 
ing the Mahomedan religion their profession, and 
in the principles and practice of which, and 
reading and writing Arabic from their sacred 
book, the Koran, they are solely instructed. 
Numbers and their uses are unknown j they 
