Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/289

 XXII. Obfervatwns on the Griggirrys of the Mandingos. In a Letter from Elliott Arthy, Efq. to William Blizard, Efq. F. R. S. and F. A. S. Read Nov. 30, 1797. . SIR, 1SEND you inclofed a fmall fpecimen of African manufcript, which I obtained from one of the natives of that quarter of the globe, on a voyage into Sierra Leone River, in the year 1 795. Pieces of manufcript of a iimilar kind are in general ufe among a tribe of Africans, called Mandingos, who inhabit a part of Africa, fituated about one hundred miles to the northward of the Britifh colony at Sierra Leone. They are commonly folded into a fmall compafs, and inclofed in little leathern cafes, to which are fixed leathern thongs, by means of which they are hung, and conftantly worn, round either the necks or waifts of the Mandingos. Thefe pieces of manufcript are called Griggirrys by the Man- dingos, and the ufe they are put to by thofe people, affords a flrik- ing inftance how infeparable ignorance and fiiperftition are in the human railed. A Mandingo man pofTefTmg one of them conceives himfelf fecure from all harm whatever ; not only from all kinds of difeafes and mifhaps, but even from being carried captive from his country, and fhielded, moreover, from the deathful force of a bullet when mot from a mufquet. Gg s On