B6 MANNERS OF THE JOLOFFS. 
The g-overnment of the Bourb-JolofFs like that of all the 
neighbouring kingdoms is feudal. The monarch nevertheless 
possesses despotic authority, which he owes, like all other 
African sovereigns, to the great number of his slaves. The 
country of the Bourb-Joloffs contains more Pagans than Ma- 
hometans. The latter are held there i,n high consideration in 
consequence of the mildness and toleration which they affect ; 
but they would probably prove very different, if their sect 
were to become more numerous. The religion of the Pagan 
Joloffs is pure fetichism ; a tree, a serpent, a ram's horn, a 
stone, scraps of paper covered with Arabic characters, or any 
objects equally insignificant, are deities with them. 
The Negroes when they fight with Negroes are brave, 
but the shadow of a Moor makes them fly ; such is their dread 
of that nation. Their only tactics consist in falling unawares 
upon their enemy ; each party retreats after having carried 
off a few prisoners, for in their estimation, blood fetches too 
high a price for them to shed it wantonly. Accordingly, 
when I related to them that our fields of battle were covered 
with thousands of slain, they could not conceive how Euro- 
peans could massacre men, since it would be so much more 
profitable, as well as more humane, to sell than to kill them. 
Wars between nations are rare. The kings alone make 
incursions into tlie territories of each other, for the purpose 
of obtaining slaves. It might be said that they have mutually 
engaged to pluuder reciprocally the countries not under their 
