Exclusive of the Koran, and a book or two of commentaries thereon, the
schoolmaster possessed a variety of manuscripts, which had partly been
purchased from the trading Moors, and partly borrowed from Bushreens in
the neighbourhood, and copied with great care. Other MSS. had been
produced to me at different places in the course of my journey; and on
recounting those I had before seen, and those which were now shown to me,
and interrogating the schoolmaster on the subject, I discovered that the
Negroes are in possession (among others) of an Arabic version of the
Pentateuch of Moses; which they call _Taureta la Moosa_. This is so
highly esteemed, that it is often sold for the value of one prime slave.
They have likewise a version of the Psalms of David, (_Zabora Dawidi_;)
and, lastly the book of Isaiah, which they call _Lingeeli la Isa_, and it
is in very high esteem. I suspect, indeed, that in all these copies,
there are interpolations of some of the peculiar tenets of Mahomet, for I
could distinguish in many passages the name of the Prophet. It is
possible, however, that this circumstance might otherwise have been
accounted for, if my knowledge of the Arabic had been more extensive. By
means of those books, many of the converted Negroes have acquired an
acquaintance with some of the remarkable events recorded in the Old
Testament. The account of our first parents; the death of Abel; the
Deluge; the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the story of Joseph and
his brethren; the history of Moses David, Solomon, &c. All these have
been related to me in the Mandingo language, with tolerable exactness, by
different people; and my surprise was not greater on hearing these
accounts from the lips of the Negroes, than theirs, on finding that I was
already acquainted with them; for although the Negroes in general have a
very great idea of the wealth and power of the Europeans, I am afraid
that the Mahomedan converts among them think but very lightly of our
superior attainments in religious knowledge. The white traders in the