138 VOYAGE TO SENEGxiL. 
The language and religion of these people are those which the 
Arabians brought into Africa. Mahometanism was preached by 
the conquerors, and was adopted by the Africans who submitted 
to them : the others were exterminated. Soon the conqueror* 
and the vanquished became one people^ professed the same reli- 
gion, and spoke the same language. 
Of all known languages, the Arabic is the most extensive. 
It is spoken in the three Arabias, in Palestine, Syria^ Mesapo^ 
tamia, Egypt, on the coasts of Abex and Darien, in the king- 
do ms of 1. ripoli, Xunis, Algiers, Fez, Morocco, and Talifez ; in 
the immense countries which are in the environs and to the south 
of the Atlas ; on the banks of the Nile, the Niger, the Senegal, 
and the Gambia; in short, it is the prevailing tongue wherever 
Mahometanism is established, but it is often disfigured by the 
dialects of the different nations who have adopted it. 
It is the same with the religion of Mahomet, which was 
founded by valour, and extended by force : it has yielded in many 
parts to the manners and customs of the people on whom it has 
been imposed The Moors, for example, are circumcised ; but 
they have no fixed time for that ceremony, and they never per- 
form it till after the age of thirteen years. The girls of these 
people are exempted from it, though there are some who make 
this operation by inflicting a slight wound. In the desert they 
have no mosques, but they meet in the open air: for the duty 
which they most scrupulously observe, is that of prayer, of which 
there are s*^veral repetitions in a day, and the first of which be- 
gins before sun-rise. 
The taibe, or priest, is remarkable for his long beard ; and is 
dressed in a piece of woollen cloth, half white and half crimson, 
which- floats loosely about his body. His figure is emaciated by 
fasting and the continual wearing a kind of chcplet of an enor- 
mous size ; and hLs voice is melancholy and lamentable. He be- 
gins Lis ollice by ordering the people to come and range them- 
selves under his ba rrier, to hear and sing the praises of the pro- 
phet ; they all run towards him with the most holy respect. 
The talbe first incLrjes himself towarc,3 the earth, scatters with 
his hands that on which his feet have rested, and then taking at 
handful of that v^^hich has not been sullied by his steps, he, for 
want of water, rubs it over his face, l ands, and arms, in or- 
der to purify himself, in which action the people all imitate 
him. 
After the prayers they remain for some time squat on the 
ground, trace with the fingers different figures on the sand, and 
move their hands ro:uid their heads, as if they were anointing 
themselves with a holy unction. In their prayers the Moors 
preserve the most profound respect: the women, who only 
