This Trifling Incident Is Mentioned As Introductory To
What Follows, For It Appeared On Inquiry That These Horns Were
Highly Valued, As Being Easily Convertible Into Portable Sheaths, Or
Cases, For Containing And Keeping Secure Certain Charms Or Amulets
Called Saphies, Which The Negroes Constantly Wear About Them.
These
saphies are prayers, or rather sentences, from the Koran, which the
Mohammedan priests write on scraps of paper,
And sell to the simple
natives, who consider them to possess very extraordinary virtues.
Some of the negroes wear them to guard themselves against the bite
of snakes or alligators; and on this occasion the saphie is commonly
enclosed in a snake's or alligator's skin, and tied round the ankle.
Others have recourse to them in time of war, to protect their
persons against hostile weapons; but the common use to which these
amulets are applied is to prevent or cure bodily diseases - to
preserve from hunger and thirst - and generally to conciliate the
favour of superior powers, under all the circumstances and
occurrences of life. {1}
In this case it is impossible not to admire the wonderful contagion
of superstition, for, notwithstanding that the majority of the
negroes are pagans, and absolutely reject the doctrines of Mohammed,
I did not meet with a man, whether a bushreen or kafir, who was not
fully persuaded of the powerful efficacy of these amulets. The
truth is, that all the natives of this part of Africa consider the
art of writing as bordering on magic; and it is not in the doctrines
of the prophet, but in the arts of the magician, that their
confidence is placed.
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