162 
AFRICAN FREE-MASONRY. 
revealed ; the adept is shut up for eight days in a hut, he is 
allowed to eat but once a day ; he sees no person excepting 
the slave appointed to carry him his food ; and at the end of 
that period a number of men in masks present themselves, 
and employ all possible means to put his courage to the proof ; 
if he acquits himself with honour he is admitted. The initiated 
pretend that at this moment they are enabled to behold all 
the kingdoms of the earth, that the future is unveiled to them, 
and that thenceforward heaven grants all their prayers. In 
the villages where persons of this fraternity reside, they 
perform the functions of conjurors, and are called Almousseri. 
One day Boukari told me, after attesting the truth of what 
he was about to say by the most solemn oaths, that being in 
a canoe with one of these men, there fell such a heavy shower 
of rain that he would not depart ; yielding, however, to the 
wishes of the Almousseri, he set sail ; " torrents of rain fell 
on all sides," added Boukari : " but our bark remained per- 
fectly dry, and a favourable wind swelled our sails. I asked 
this Almousseri to explain his secret, but he answered, that if 
he revealed it his brethren would infallibly destroy him." 
Another class of persons acts a very extraordinary part 
in Foutatoro ; these are called Diavandos ; they inhabit the 
villages of Senopalé and Canel, they are the griots of these 
parts ; though doomed by their profession to contempt, they 
have nevertheless contrived to render themselves formidable 
by the influence which they have gained over the public 
