changes of this luminary, in its monthly course: and it is thought very unlucky to begin a journey or any other work of consequence, in the last quarter. An eclipse, whether of the sun or moon, is supposed to be effected by witchcraft. The stars are very little regarded; and the whole study of astronomy appears to them as a useless pursuit, and attended to by such persons only as deal in magic.
Their notions of geography are equally puerile. They imagine that the world is an extended plain, the termination of which no eye has discovered; it being, they say, overhung with clouds and darkness. They describe the sea as a large river of salt water, on the farther shore of which is situated a country called Tobaubo doo; "the land of the white people." At a distance from Tobaubo doo, they describe another country, which they alledge is inhabited by cannibals of gigantic size, called Koomi. This country they call Jong sang doo, "the land where the slaves are sold." But of all countries in the world their own appears to them as the best, and their own people as the happiest; and they pity the fate of other
