382 
SPREAD OF MAHOMEDANISM. 
sanguinary of the sovereign chiefs. Decapitation, 
poison, and mutilation, were said to be frequent 
punishments inflicted by him j sometimes wantonly 
on his slaves,* and frequently from superstitious 
motives, as he believed the spirit of the river to be 
propitiated by human sacrifices. Lander succeeded in 
making him promise to relinquish this horrible practice, 
but we fear, only for a time, as Oldfield mentions his 
having returned to it. However, deprivation of liberty 
is the most prevalent in judicial cases ; and whatever may 
be the amount of guilt, the judge, being the gainer, 
may be tempted to rejoice in the increase of crime, since 
to him it is a source of revenue. 
In many towns, and especially at Rabbah, are schools 
pretty well attended, but as none of the languages of 
these countries are written, the children are taught to 
read the Koran, to write it on sand, and to repeat a 
few Arabic prayers, which is the total amount of their 
learning, and he who can recite the most and the 
loudest in a breath, is the aptest scholar. 
To say precisely what are the ideas of religion enter- 
tained by those natives who are without the pale of 
Mahomedanism, would be impossible. The pagans 
have very ill-defined ideas on the subject, but believe in 
a Supreme Being. Fetichism universally prevails, and 
they think that “ stocks and stones” are deputed to care 
for, or mar the welfare of man. They have unbounded 
* He is stated to have cut ofF the eyelids of those who guarded his 
treasure, in order to make them more watchful. 
