Or with new worlds amaze th’ unbounded soul.”
What can be more beautiful and sublime?——
Ignatius Sancho, a negro, many years servant to the Duke of Montagu, whose sentimental letters, so generally known, would not disgrace the pen of an European, may also be mentioned on this occasion; and with regard to their powers of memory and calculation, I shall only notice Thomas Fuller, a negro, the property of a Mrs. Cox in Maryland, North America; and quote one singular anecdote, as it is related by Dr. Rush of Philadelphia, in a letter to a gentleman at Manchester.
“Being travelling,” says the Doctor, “with some other gentlemen of this city, through Maryland, and having heard of the astonishing powers of memory in arithmetical calculation possessed by Thomas Fuller, a negro, we sent for him; when one of the gentlemen in company asked him, how many seconds a man of seventy years, some odd months, weeks and days, had lived? He told the exact number in a minute and a half. [[261]]When the gentleman who had asked the question took his pen, and having calculated the same by figures, told the negro he must be mistaken, as the number he had mentioned was certainly too great. ‘Top, Massera,’ said the negro, ‘you have omitted the leap-years;’ when having calculated the seconds contained in the number of leap-years, and added them, the number was found exactly the same as that calculated by the negro. This same man multiplied nine figures by nine, by memory, before another company.” Another lately repeated the Alcoran from recollection only.—What amazing mental faculties in African negroes, who could neither read nor write! Yet that such things are, is well authenticated.
To what I have already advanced, I may add, that all negroes firmly believe the being of a God, upon whose goodness they rely, and whose power they adore, while they have no fear of death, and never taste food without offering a libation. In the rivers Gambia and Senegal they are mostly Mahometans; but generally the worship and religious ceremonies of the Africans vary, as do the numberless superstitious practices of all savages, and indeed of too many Europeans. Perceiving that it was their custom to bring their offerings to the wild cotton-tree[2], [[262]]I enquired of an old negro, why they paid such particular reverence and veneration to this growing piece of timber. “This proceeds (said he) massera, from the following cause: having no churches nor places built for public worship (as you have) on the Coast of Guinea, and this tree being the largest and most beautiful growing there, our people, assembling under its branches when they are going to be instructed, are defended by it from the heavy rains and scorching sun. Under this tree our gadoman, or priest, delivers his lectures; and for this reason our common people have so much veneration for it, that they will not cut it down upon any account whatever.”
No people can be more superstitious than the generality of negroes; and their Locomen, or pretended prophets, find their interest in encouraging this superstition, by selling them obias or amulets, as I have already mentioned, and as some hypocrites sell absolution in Europe, for a comfortable living. These people have also amongst them a kind of Sibyls, who deal in oracles; these sage matrons dancing and whirling round in the middle of an assembly, with amazing rapidity, until they foam at the mouth, and drop down as convulsed. Whatever the prophetess orders to be done during this paroxism, is most sacredly performed by the surrounding multitude; which renders these meetings extremely dangerous, as she frequently enjoins them to murder their masters, or desert to the woods; upon which account this scene of excessive fanaticism is forbidden by law in the colony of Surinam, [[263]]upon pain of the most rigorous punishment: yet it is often practised in private places, and is very common amongst the Owca and Seramica negroes, where captains Fredericy and Van Geurick told me they had seen it performed. It is here called the winty-play, or the dance of the mermaid, and has existed from time immemorial; as even the classic authors make frequent mention of this extraordinary practice. Virgil, in his sixth book, makes Eneas visit the Sibyl of Cuma; and Ovid also mentions the same subject, lib. 14. where Eneas wishes to visit the ghost of his father.
But what is still more strange, these unaccountable women by their voice know how to charm the ammodytes,[3] or papaw serpent, down from the tree. This is an absolute fact; nor is this snake ever killed or hurt by the negroes, who, on the contrary, esteem it as their friend and guardian, and are happy to see it enter their huts. When these sibyls have charmed or conjured down the ammodytes serpent from the tree, it is common to see this reptile twine and wreathe about their arms, neck and breast, as if the creature took delight in hearing her voice, while the woman strokes and caresses it with her hand. The sacred writers speak of the charming of adders and serpents in many places, which I mention [[264]]only to prove the antiquity of the practice[4]; for nothing is more notorious, than that the Eastern Indians will rid the houses of the most venomous snakes by charming them with the sound of a flute, which calls them out of their holes. And it is not many years since an Italian woman brought over three tame snakes, which crawled about her neck and arms: they were four or five feet long, but not venomous.
Another instance of superstition amongst the negroes I must relate; there is a direct prohibition in every family, handed down from father to son, against the eating of some one kind of animal food, which they call treff; this may be either fowl, fish, or quadruped, but whatever it is, no negro will touch it; though I have seen some good Catholics eat roast-beef in Lent, and a religious Jew devouring a slice from a fat flitch of bacon.
However ridiculous some of the above rites may appear, yet amongst the African blacks they are certainly necessary, to keep the rabble in subjection; and their gadomen or priests know this as well as the infallible Pontiff of the Roman church. These illiterate mortals differ, however, in this respect from the modern Europeans, that whatever they believe, they do it firmly, and are never staggered by the doubts of scepticism, nor troubled with [[265]]the qualms of conscience; but whether they are, upon this account, better or worse, I will not pretend to determine.—I however think that they are a happy people, and possess so much friendship for one another, that they need not be told to “love their neighbour as themselves;” since the poorest negro, having only an egg, scorns to eat it alone; but were a dozen present, and every one a stranger, he would cut or break it into just as many shares; or were there one single dram of rum, he would divide it among the same number: this is not done, however, until a few drops are first sprinkled on the ground, as an oblation to the gods.—Approach then here, thou canting hypocrite, and take an example from thy illiterate sable brother!—From what I sometimes throw out, however, let it not be understood that I am an enemy to religious worship—God forbid! But I ever will profess myself the greatest friend to those whose actions best correspond with their doctrine; which, I am sorry to say, is too seldom the case amongst those nations who pretend most to civilization.