184 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

consists in facing the east, and bowing the body several times, so as to allow the forehead to toucli the ground, at the same time repeating some short prayers from the Koran, and frequently ejaculating the name of the Prophet in the most apparently devout manner.

Had Almamy Amady, in embracing this religion, bad and unsound as it is, been actuated by any other principle than that of self-interest, and the desire of attaching to his cause the people of Foota Toro and Jallon, he might have (at least by personal example) inspired his subjects with a reverence for the divine character, and an inclination to please him, by a just and upright line of conduct, to both which they are entire strangers ; evincing, in all their concerns, both among themselves and with their neighbours, a low deceitful cunning, which they endeavour to cloak by rehgious cant. In fact, I have never seen a people who have more of the outward show of religion with less of its inward influence.

There are schools in almost every town, for the instruction of those youths who intend making theMahomedan religion their profession, and in the principles and practice of which, and reading and writing Arabic from their sacred book, the Koran, tliey are solely instructed. Numbers and their uses are unknown ; they