62 
CHARMS — MAHOMETAN PRIESTS. 
the Koran, and a part of the day is spent in repeating prayers 
on a long chaplet, suspended from their girdle. . , ^ , 
The Mahometan priests enjoy an almost unlimited 
authority. They alone communicate with the Deity, and 
interpret his will, which they turn to the account of the 
object which they have in view. They have so artfully 
contrived to excite in the minds of the Negroes, a blind con- 
fidence in the papers which they call gris-gris, on which are 
written Arabic prayers, that not an individual is without 
them ; the very horses are covered with them, and they are 
enveloped in the most costly stuffs. Before aman sets out on 
a distant journey, he applies for a gris-gris, and pays for the 
charm its weight in gold. The Negroes assert that this pre- 
cious talisman is a safeguard against fire-arms, and it is intro- 
duced into the crowns of kings. 
Two conditions are indispensably necessary to procure 
admission into the class of Marabouts, an irreproachable cha- 
racter, and an acquaintance with the Arabic language. The 
candidate ought to know several chapters of the Koran by 
heart, and to combine with these acquirements a knowledge 
of certain Arabic books, which treat of the history of the 
world and of arithmetic. The Mahometan priests are always 
called upon to divide inheritances. 
The Marabout who with this profound erudition pos- 
sesses the talent of composing in the Arabic language, for the 
