These Impostors Have Always Free Access To The Beys And Other High Dignitaries Of The State; And With Regard To The Former, In Public Audiences They Never Kiss His Hand, But His Shoulder, A Token Of Distinction And Confidence Granted Only To Relations And Persons Of Importance.

In their religion, the Africans labour under the disadvantage of being left to unassisted reason, and that too very little enlightened.

Man has, perhaps, an instinctive sentiment, that his own fate and that of the universe are ruled by some supreme and invisible power, yet he sees this only through the medium of his wishes and imagination. He seeks for some object of veneration and means of protection, which may assume an outward and tangible shape. Thus the African reposes his faith in the doctrine of charms, which presents a substance stamped with a supernatural character, capable of being attached to himself individually, and of affording a feeling of security amid the many evils that environ him. In all the moorish borders where writing is known, it forms the basis of Fetisherie, and its productions enclosed in golden or ornamented cases, are hung round the person as guardian influences. Absurd, however, as are the observances of the negro, he is a stranger to the bigotry of his moslem neighbours. He neither persecutes nor brands as impious those whose religious views differ from his own. There is only one point, on which his faith assumes a savage character, and displays darker than inquisitorial horrors.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 267 of 1124
Words from 72614 to 72863 of 309561