I Thanked The King For His Affectionate Solicitude, But Told
Him That I Had Considered The Matter, And Was Determined, Notwithstanding
All Dangers, To Proceed.
The king shook his head, but desisted from
further persuasion; and told me the guide should be ready in the
afternoon.
About two o'clock, the guide appearing, I went and took my last farewell
of the good old king, and in three hours reached Konjour, a small
village, where we determined to rest for the night. Here I purchased a
fine sheep for some beads, and my Serawoolli attendants killed it with
all the ceremonies prescribed by their religion: part of it was dressed
for supper: after which a dispute arose between one of the Serawoolli
Negroes and Johnson, my interpreter, about the sheep's horns. The former
claimed the horns as his perquisite, for having acted the part of our
butcher, and Johnson contested the claim. I settled the matter by giving
a horn to each of them. 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 Mahomedan
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 ancle.
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