Page:The land of fetish.pdf/37

 paper, inscribed with a verse from the Koran in Arabic characters, was fastened to each as a protection from thieves. My cicerone said,

"These are very foolish people, sar."

"Are they? How?"

"They put dem writings on the bolts, and then think nobody can open the doors."

"Oh!"

"Yes; and them Mandingos won't touch them when they're leff so—they 'fraid to."

"You're not afraid, I suppose?"

"Me? No, I don't care for grisgris. By'mby I show you my farm; when these foolish people sleep on dark night, I take as much corn as I want for planting time. They think it must be devil," and he chuckled at the joke.

"What religion are you then?"

"Oh! I b'long to the Wesleyans."

"Ah! I thought so."

My co-religionist informed me that the deer usually devoured half his crops, and that leopards, and animals "that howled like drunken men at night," by which graphic description he meant hyenas, were so numerous and bold in their raids on the poultry and dogs that the thorn hedges, which I had noticed surrounding the village, were erected for their special