saphies

This trifling incident is mentioned as introductory to what follows, for it appeared on inquiry that these horns were highly valued, as being easily convertible into portable sheaths, or cases, for containing and keeping secure certain charms or amulets called saphies, which the negroes constantly wear about them.

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, 1795-7 1893

This trifling incident is mentioned as introductory to what follows, for it appeared on inquiry that these horns were highly valued, as being easily convertible into portable sheaths, or cases, for containing and keeping secure certain charms or amulets called saphies, which the negroes constantly wear about them.

Travels in the Interior of Africa — Volume 01 Mungo Park 1788

It was Isaaco who nursed the forty brave men who one by one sickened of dysentery; supported them on their mules, even in delirium, when they cried like children for their homes; and buried them at the last with saphies or charms from the

The Journal of Negro History, Volume 7, 1922 Various

I was wondering what The Author would have said had he seen us at that moment -- The Jinnee shuffling ahead in heelless slippers and Oriental dress, upon his woolly head a red fez with a silver crescent on it, and on his breast a string of _saphies_, verses from the Koran, in exquisite Arabic script, framed in flat round pieces of silver and strung on a chain.

A Woman Named Smith Marie Conway Oemler 1905

The case was this: — A young man, a kafir of considerable affluence, who had recently married a young and handsome wife, applied to a very devout bushreen, or Mussalman priest, of his acquaintance, to procure him saphies for his protection during the approaching war.

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, 1795-7 1893

On returning to the village, after an excursion to the river-side to inspect the fishery, an old Moorish shereef came to bestow his blessing upon me, and beg some paper to write saphies upon.

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, 1795-7 1893

Great Desert; but turning Mussulman, and his master dying at Jenne, he obtained his freedom and settled at this place, where he carries on a considerable trade in salt, cotton cloth, &c. His knowledge of the world had not lessened that superstitious confidence in saphies and charms which he had imbibed in his earlier years, for when he heard that I was a

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, 1795-7 1893

The hides of bullocks are converted chiefly into sandals, and therefore require less care in dressing than the skins of sheep and goats, which are used for covering quivers and saphies, and in making sheaths for swords and knives, belts, pockets, and a variety of ornaments.

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, 1795-7 1893

These saphies are prayers, or rather sentences, from the Koran, which the Mohammedan priests write on scraps of paper, and sell to the simple natives, who consider them to possess very extraordinary virtues.

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, 1795-7 1893

For these they generally apply saphies to different parts of the body, and perform a great many other superstitious ceremonies — some of which are indeed well calculated to inspire the patient with the hope of recovery, and divert his mind from brooding over his own danger — but I have sometimes observed among them a more systematic mode of treatment.

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, 1795-7 1893