Chapter VIII: The Procession

On Saturday, December 19th—Ember Day, it will be remembered—we prepared for the penance of reception. An early visit was paid by the King’s chief physician and archi-magus, Buko-no Uro: a thin, dark, and somewhat castey-looking senior. He was close shaven, to hide the frostiness of his wool; simply clad in white shorts, and in a large silk cloth with none but the ordinary silver ornaments. He looked somewhat leaner than before, probably the result of his latest nuptials with one of the King’s stalwart daughters. This personage came of course solely to renew old ties, to apologise for not having built a proper house, and to enquire about every one’s health, from the most Exalted of the Empire to my humble self. The real errand at once peeped out: Harpagon[191] wanted a list of presents, and was especially curious to know whether various items specified to Commodore Wilmot, chiefly a carriage and pair, were _en route_. After reading out to him the official document touching these matters, he allowed for a time the subject to lie, resolved to stir it up again at the earliest opportunity. By way of showing friendship he announced that our reception would take place to-day, and that on the morrow we should proceed to Agbome: he also declared in an off-hand manner that, even before presentation at the palace, we might walk about when and where we pleased. Kana, I have said, is country quarters; the sort of state imprisonment with which visitors are honoured at Agbome, is not the rule here. He therefore graciously granted us no favour, but our right, with which he departed, telling us to eat and dress at once, as the King was preparing for our reception.

I knew well from experience that these ceremonies never take place, except in some emergency, before the afternoon. Moreover, it is the first wish of every Dahoman official to hurry “his strangers” as much as possible for two reasons. The minor is, that by making white men, especially in uniform, sit for a few hours in the open air fronting a mud wall, called a palace, he enhances the opinion of his power amongst the people. The major is, his desire to make favour with the King, who when issuing from the interior wishes to be received by the visitors, and looks crookedly at the “minister” if they be not present. Something must be added on the score of African brain-looseness: these people have as little idea of time as of numbers.[192] The stranger, however, must be prepared to do battle with this nuisance from the beginning, and the struggle will endure unto the bitter end, when dismissal brings matters to a crisis. I ended by proposing that for the future a messenger should be sent direct by the king, not by the landlord as at present, to inform visitors that the hour of attendance was at hand. But, even should this be granted, the messenger will have, to some extent, the same inducements as has the landlord in discomforting visitors.

Under the then circumstances, So-kun, our guide, began, about 10 A.M., the systematic African worrying[193]: it was, however, of no avail, and we put off the evil time till 1 P.M., which proved to be only one hour too soon. The business of the day was to begin with the procession of caboceers, a ceremony as old as the time of Mr. Norris, who has left a notice of it. Followed by new and handsome hammocks, we were conducted to the Gbwe-hun-’li,[194] a clear space partially shaded with ragged trees: it is about 100 paces N.N.E. of the “English House,” and for many generations it has been the seat of these operations. Then ranging our sticks facing northwards, we formed the focus of stare and gaze, the smaller rabble being as usual conspicuous. Two Klan, or Ai-hun-da- to,[195] jesters, came up, and in hopes of dole did their best to amuse us. These African “Sutari” are like the guiriots or buffoons, those Senegal professionals, who mingle in every crowd, and whose sole object in life is to make men laugh. Ever racking their wits to please, they evince the true negro poverty of invention: there is a lack of variety in their tricks which soon renders them lively as a professionally engaged mourner or a Turkish mute. Some of them take to the trade early in life, they are in fact born and hereditary buffoons. They are remarkable for their ugliness, to which they add by white-washing face, arms, and legs. The staple of their entertainment consists in “making faces,” as children say, wrinkling foreheads; protruding tongues, and clapping jaws like apes; in a little rude tumbling,[196] in ugly dancing and agitating the clunes, in drawing in the belly to show emptiness, in smoking a bone or a bit of cassava by way of pipe, in producing from huge bags[197] yams and maize paste, of which they bolted mouthfuls, or by pretending to be deaf and dumb—a favourite trick here. They offered us some provisions, and we had the laugh against them by accepting and passing them on to our servants; and they imitated my notes by scratching a sweet potato with a stick. I need not add that they are bull beggars all.

Shortly after we had taken our seats appeared, borne aloft on a negro’s head, a table which was fated to be one of our best friends in Dahome. It was a venerable article, once intended for cards, but the violent hands of the _negraille_ had long ago denuded it of green baize, had stripped off its veneer, and had reduced its single leg to a singularly smashed and shaky state. A glance at it never failed to elicit a request for a new “tavo,” and a reminder that the Commodore had promised a _remplaçant_. After two or three had puzzled their brains for a quarter of an hour with the intricate problem of opening it, another would produce from a calico-covered calabash sundry case and other bottles of gin and similar spirits, sometimes wine, and always tolerably pure water, from the palace. These elements of endurance were supplied to us with a praiseworthy regularity: hardly did we take our seats on any occasion, when lo! the table. The King seemed to be pleased by our appreciating the contents of his cellar: he frequently sent us messages bidding us not to spare them, and, though the Landlord frowned, I took especial care to make our followers invariably empty whatever was set before us. As a rule, the whites, even the French, and the mulattoes engaged in the _comercio_, are so overawed by the presence of one “whose smile is life and whose frown is death,” that they would never venture upon such a liberty, consequently the King thinks that they fear him.

Presently a hum of voices from the north answered the first of the salutes. Under two tent umbrellas, one virgin-white and the other figured,[198] and accompanied by two courtiers, walked the bearer of the royal cane, Bosu Sau.[199] He is a half-brother to the king; dark, not ill-looking, but showing no resemblance to the ruler. Followed by his band, drums and rattles, and by his armed escort, he advanced, snapped fingers with us, and presented the stick. We drank with him three toasts, beginning with his master’s health. A salute was then fired, and presently Bosu Sau and his chiefs sat down upon their tall Gold Coast stools placed on our left, and thus forming part of an oval opening north, where the saluters presented themselves.

Then the companies began to pass round, and first those of Whydah. In all these displays it is “funeral order,” juniors first. A white umbrella, a pair of silver horns,[200] announced Nulofren, who, habited in the costume of the day, an armless tunic of red and yellow striped silk, was bestriding a little nag. After the latter had been led three times round us with a halter, and the equestrian had thrice waved hand to us as he passed the opening of the spectator-ring, he was lifted off by a pair of slaves. His fifty soldiers then formed line, whilst the commander advanced and bowed; he then danced and fired a gun, the rest presenting arms; finally, he snapped fingers, made compliments, and retired to the enjoyment of stool and umbrella. Such was the programme of the whole affair, whose resemblance to European tactics suggested imitation.

Nulofren was followed by Nuage, of Whydah, another half-brother of the king, a tall, dark, thin man, with a chief’s silver armlets and thread pigtail depending down his dorsum. He rode past smoking a pipe.

The third was “the place”—meaning a confidential slave—of Wenu, who was unable to be present. He rode past, waved hands, danced, fired, and took his seat on our left: not, however, like the caboceers, upon a chair.

The fourth was the Prince Chyudaton, a caboceer of note and influence, one of the King’s many cousins, supposed to possess the ear of royalty, and lately appointed second Yevogan of Whydah. He is a young man, tall and well-made, of coaly complexion, broad-faced, and with a prepossessing expression. The English subjects speak highly of him: the French, whose “landlord” he is, declare him to be cunning and interested. He certainly knows the habits of white men, and it was long ago proposed that he should visit England, the principal advantage being that after return he might venture upon the truth, which a meaner man would not dare before royalty.[201] When this was mentioned to the King, he readily consented, declaring, however, that he must retain as hostages Mrs. Bernasko and her children. I much regretted not seeing more of this young man, but the jealousy of the “English landlord” managed successfully to isolate me. On the present occasion Chyudaton was smoking a bad Bahia cigar,—a bit of civilization to be expected from one so conversant with “European society”; he wore a tunic of green silk, and his decoration was a pair of mushroom horns. He performed the decapitation dance, looking most amiable the while.

The French and English flags, preceding a company of dancing soldiery, announced the Yevogan, or viceroy of Whydah. In contrast with his lieutenant, he is the old school of Gezo’s officials, and he is perhaps the worst type. He was born at the hereditary little village[202] of his family, Dokon, about two miles to the east of the Kana Gate of Agbome. His appearance revolts: it is a compound of a bovine cerebellum, a deeply-wrinkled brow villainously low, a double prognathousness, massive lips with bad lines, thickly-lidded, blear and yellow eyes, and the expression of a satyr. Mr. Duncan found him an “excellent fellow,” which in one sense is true. He is as bad as he looks, and his avarice is only to be equalled by his rapacity. If two strangers dispute at Whydah, 500 dollars for instance being the subject, and the litigants proceed to the Yevogan for justice, he at once confiscates half the amount in question to the King, that is to say, to himself; and a third quarter will certainly disappear amongst the caboceers and Fetishmen.[203] Until lately, he has, like all the older officials, known white men only as slavers, and as the most abject order of traders. He treats everyone with equal superciliousness. This insolence has more than once brought him into trouble, and in May last he was placed under arrest in his own house for incivility to strangers. Yet he is ever rude of manner, and requires to be treated in kind: “civil or rough,” as the occasion requires, but much more of the latter than of the former. On this occasion he wore, as a white man, a felt hat, which he doffed to us thrice; then dancing a few steps, he came forward to snap fingers, and attempted, partly in jest but much in earnest, to pull us from our seats.

The caboceers were followed by the companies, of which the first was that of the Ahanjito or singers and of the Hunto or drummers; in fact, the local bards, troubadours, or laureates, who are not less powerful in Dahome than in other wild lands, from Wales to Nepaul. The distinguishing mark was the horse-tail “chauri,” with a man’s jawbone above the handle. They were preceded by nine “fancy flags,[204]” adorned with all manner of figures, animate and inanimate, cut out of coloured cloth and sewn upon the plain ground. These were followed by a truly barbarous display: eight human crania dished up on small wooden bowls like bread-plates, at the top of very tall poles,—a ninth remaining ominously ungarnished. After passing round in view without umbrellas, the musical warriors, who are _preux chevaliers_ and extra-doughty worthies, formed line opposite me, and waving their “chauris,” sang to a pretty tune certain words in my praise,[205]—

Burton (pronounced Batunu), he hath seen all the world with its kings and caboceers:

He now cometh to see Dahome, and he shall see everything here.

They were dressed in rich silks, and eleven of them wore horns. After dancing solos they sat down on our right, where before stood the common herd of gazers, chiefly boys.

Then, preceded by the Union Jack (why?) and four flags, came the Akho-’si—“King wife,”—or Eunuch Company. There were three chiefs, two in black felt and one in horns; the corps, however, is no longer distinguished, as in the days of the History, by carrying bright iron rods. The head man presented the royal stick, whereupon I rose and drank to the King’s health. He then informed me that he had been commissioned by the Chief Eunuch, the principal palace dignitary, to guide my steps.

The rest of the pageant was a rapid pass round of the _corps d’élite_. My Blue, or English escort of the last day, with their Colonel, Anaufen, in a cap of crimson velvet, followed an unfurled flag, fired, and saluted. The Achi, or bayoneteers, were headed by their commander in a man-o’-war’s man’s cap, about twenty in number; they were tall, large, and evidently picked men, dressed in blue cloth tunics, and armed with heavily loaded guns. They are recognised by a kind of eye on their conical caps, also of blue cloth, two horizontal parentheses of white, and a dark central dot.[206] Followed a few carbineers, whose half- shaven heads showed them to be slaves of the palace: they are known as Zo-hu-nun—“Fire at the foe’s front.” A white flag with a blue anchor at the end of a waving red stripe, denoted the Gan’ u’ nlan Company, the “Conquerors of all animals,” so called from the size of their guns, which are expected to kill, not to wound[207]: forming part of the artillery with the Agbáryá,[208] or blunderbuss men; they are chosen for size and strength, and much prefer themselves to the commonalty of the army. They followed a tattered Jack and a fancy flag, and their chiefs bowed to us, whilst the men, resting the butt upon the ground, fired resonant charges.

At 2 P.M., when the review was over, the Yevogan again came up, shook hands with us, and preceded by the most numerous of the companies, his own men, set out palacewards, leaving us to follow.

All our party then formed file, led by the youth Buko, carrying the King’s cane which had reached us at Whydah, by So-kun, the English guide, and by the solemn eunuch De-Adán-de. Mr. Hilton preceded the hammocks with the flag of St. George, followed by the Reverend Bernasko, supported on both sides by Beecham and Valentine.[209] I went next with my armed Krumen in bright caps and “Pagnes”; behind me was Mr. Cruikshank, then Governor Mark, and lastly the boy Tom. Between the ceremonial trees of Gbwehun-’li and the palace of Baynamme,[210] the distance is about a quarter of an hour in hammocks: the different interruptions multiplied it by three; at every 100 yards a 3-pounder ship’s swivel fired a blank shot, and was carried on the shoulder of a single porter to the next station. The direction was north, with a little westing. A broad well-worn and carefully cleaned road—all those about Kana are the same—hard with water-rolled pebbles, wound through grass plots, scatterings of wild cotton heaps, and tufts of croton (_Croton tiglium_) between fields of maize and “thur” (_Cajanus indicus_), and under the noble trees detaching the divers homesteads. An abundance of Fetish was also present.

Presently we struck upon the eastern angle of the palace. These buildings in Dahome are all made upon the same pattern: a swish wall of five courses or steps,[211] about 20 ft. high, forms the enceinte; in many places it appears ruinous; it shows patches of matting, and when new ground is taken in, a fresh palm fence denotes that labour is deferred to another day. The shape is an irregular square or broken oblong, and the circumference must be sufficient to contain the wives, soldieresses, and female slaves, composing the _personnel_ of the feminine court. The gates vary in number; they are usually from eight to ten. They are thatched sheds about 100 ft. long, built against the clay wall, and 60 ft. to 70 ft. high; though the roof ridge is tall enough for two stories, the deep and solid eaves rest upon posts barely 4 ft. tall, planted at 14 to 15 ft. from the back wall, and the two nearest the entrance are provided with earth benches.[212] The slanting roof of thick grass is kept in position by stout bamboo splints. Inside, the ground is raised about 1 ft.; the material is a stiff red loam, in parts rudely pipeclayed. Outside the entrance there are invariably two stunted and pollarded trees, here as favourite a fashion as formerly in France; and often a pole connecting them forms a gallows, from which jo-susu, vo-sisa, or Fetish calabashes, and other talismans depend. Each tree also has its bundle of Bo-sò, or Bo-sticks,[213]—truncheons, 3 to 4 ft. long, zebra’d or spotted with red and white, and at times inscribed with Moslem prayers; they resembled on a small scale the barber’s pole of old England and of modern America. The external gateways act as guard- houses: in the interior, as far as can be seen, they correspond with the external, and the King always receives in these barnlike sheds. After the fashion of the old Whydah rulers, he is ever changing his sleeping apartment.[214]

After a few minutes we arrived at the Akoreha,[215] or eastern market, where we were received by a consistory of Bo Fetishmen; on their right were holy women in decent garb, petticoated to the ankles, and distinguished by flowers in the hair, and by long necklaces of cowries. The chief carried by way of sceptre a wonderfully-worked axe of bright brass, called by the people Asiovi, and known to the Portuguese as Facão de Bo. Lustily cheered, we passed the several gates of the palace, each showing from one to three umbrellas of the guard, the captains on chairs, and the men on the ground sitting motionless with guns and blunderbusses pointed skywards, and like a picadil of spears. Turning down another open space, called Ajyako, we proceeded to the Addogwin, or western market. I did not recognise a place once familiar to my eyes: the palace fence of dry brown palm-leaves had disappeared for a bran-new dark-green matting, and the form of the clearing had changed: nothing recalled the old locality but a huge tree on the north side.

When opposite the western or main gate, the usual large barn-like thatched shed, supported on posts, we dismounted, as is the custom, to make _congées_. On the right were two duck-guns, and a _machine infernale_ with five bell-mouthed brass barrels, mounted on a dwarf bed,[216] and with a single flint lock: on the left were four wall- pieces and one wooden case, which was probably empty. Twenty-four umbrellas, ranged in line, covered an equal number of the highest dignitaries in the empire. A somewhat lengthy description of this place will be required: it is the fac-simile in male of the feminine palace- interior, and it represents the soldiery of Dahome, minus the King, halted or encamped upon the line of march.

The army, or what is nearly synonymous, the nation of Dahome, is divided, both male and female, into two wings—the Right and the Left.[217] They are so called from their relative position to the throne, which here was represented by the entrance dividing the captains and their retainers into two bodies.

The right or senior wing is commanded, _ex-officio_, by the Min- gan,[218] the first of the two great Bonugan or civilian captains “of the outside.” He is, therefore, the Premier of the empire amongst men[219]; the she-Min-gan, being within the palace, takes precedence of him. He leads in the field the first battalion of the right wing, and, as head of the police, he is supposed to speak from the people to the King. Being _exécuteur des hautes œuvres_, he is also entitled “Men-wu- to, or man-slayer”; and, as he kills for the king proper, in the case of sacrificial or distinguished deaths he is expected to use his own hands, leaving the humbler sort to his assistants. The present “_M. de Dahome_” is a tall, dark, thin old man, by no means decrepid, with a neat and well-made small cranium, but decidedly the look of a headsman. I have said all Dahoman officials are in double pairs: his lieutenant is the Adanejan (by the English called “Adonijah”), the “King’s Cousin,” and a favourite at court. The woman Min-gan is Gundeme,[220] and she has an assistant.

Under the Min-gan, or civilian Premier, is the Gau,[221] or leader of the second battalion of the right wing, and military Commander-in-Chief. He is, in the absence of the Min-gan, the head of the Ahwan-gan,[222] or war captains of the outside. The present officer is a tall and large old man, with a wrinkled forehead, nervous and ricketty: it is almost time that he should “go to sleep.” His second in command is the Matro, brother to the present King. The corresponding officer amongst the Amazons is known as Khe-tun-gan,[223] and her deputy is the Zokhenu.[224]

The chief civilian Captain of the Left is the Meu,[225] who is the second subject in the empire. He speaks from the King to the people, collects the revenues, receives tribute, declares war, appoints, according to some, the Gau and the Po-su, and has the charge of all strangers visiting the King. He also executes the criminals of Addo- Kpon, the Bush King, an institution which, with the reader’s leave, I will explain at a future time.[226] The present tenant of office was once celebrated for his memory, and could so class facts that he never forgot name or event: with the poor mnemonical aid of a few beans or seeds he managed the complicated affairs of Dahome. In those days his power was great, and he required to be bought at a high price. He is now an old, old man,[227] with hollow cheeks and toothless gums, which make his mouth appear lipless—the only predicament which produces this phenomenon in Africa. He easily forgets; he appears to be half asleep; and he is manifestly becoming childish. The King has occasionally hinted at his retirement, but the decrepid senior clamours to be kept on, declaring, perhaps truly, that do-nothingness would kill him: his exceeding rapacity and big eye[228] would, if unglutted, certainly cause his death. But he has served as a “politic blade” many a king. At times he waxes bright, and calls to mind the Captain Springatha so facetiously depicted by the commander of the “Hannibal of London.” His favourite garb is an unclean shirt, an alpaca jacket worn to rustiness, and broad silver armlets—Mr. Duncan’s “silver gauntlets”—upon the brown sleeves, when he manages to look exceedingly mean. His lieutenant is styled the Bi-wan-ton.[229] Though not of royal blood, he has lately succeeded to the name and rank of a nephew of the King who debauched the twin princesses due in marriage to the Min-gan and the Meu. The culprit is imprisoned, but, as a scion of royalty, he receives food from his own house, and he is allowed a single slave. No intercourse with his wives is permitted. Thus his greatest punishment is what we administer to our convicts gratis. The corresponding officer among the Amazons is known as the Akpadume,[230] and her deputy is the Fosupo.[231]

Under the Meu, and related to him, as the Gau is to the Min-gan, ranks the Po-su.[232] He may also be described as the head war-man to the Meu, under the Commander-in-Chief. The present incumbent is by no means of prepossessing presence. He is a youngish warrior, black, lean, and muscular. The loss of an eye when Gezo attacked Abeokuta, adds to his scowling look. He appears ever sick or surly; and his wool, worn longer than usual, stands upright in little tufts and pigtails, like a thrum mop. His lieutenant is the Ahwigbamen, one of the King’s brothers. Under the Po-su ranks the Ajyaho, the “Jahou” of the History, and there called “Captain of Horse.” Though not a neuter, he is the chief of the eunuchs, whose offences he punishes. He swears witnesses, and he has medicines to elicit the truth.

These high officials, the Min-gan and Meu, the Gau and Po-su, or one of them, failing the Ajyaho, lead the four battalions which the Dahoman army numbers in the field. The Amazons are, it has been seen, similarly conducted.

The third personage in the realm is the Yevo-gan, whose functions I have described. By the state law of Dahome, as at Benin, all men are slaves to the King, and most women are his wives. The blood-royal is the only freedom in the country, and it probably does not exceed two thousand souls.

After the Bonu-gans, the Owu-tu-nun (royal attendants), and the Ahwan- gan, rank the Akhi ’sino,[233] or great traders, who pay over duties to the King. They are in fact the “merchant princes” of Dahome, and they certainly lead a more useful life than the Ahwan-gan, or military class, which will do nothing but eat and drink, dance, make war, and attend Customs. In the fifth rank are the petty governors and captains, to whom the King gives the insignia and the property of their predecessors, and who are degraded for the most trifling reasons—the neglect of some ceremonial, or the evil report of a messenger.

Returning to the western part of the palace, where sits the little host of high officials, we find them inspecting their retainers, especially the companies which had saluted us. These militia troops were marching round, singing, dancing, firing, and performing other evolutions distinguished by immense noisiness. We finished in hammocks our three official tours of the Addogwin market-place, each time stopping to salute the Sublime Porte. At 2.45 P.M., after the last salutation, we retired about a hundred yards, and, facing eastwards, sat down till summoned to “the presence.”

The heat was excessive, and the dancers’ dust stained us red. After half-an-hour, a silver bell and pair of horns hurrying up, motioned us to arise and advance. This person was the To-no-nun, or chief eunuch, whose functions, including those of his brother official, the Kan-gbo- de, must, at the risk of wearying the reader, be explained before I can hope to make the interior of the palace intelligible. So complicated are the various offices and the ceremonious receptions amongst these people, who own no other study in life!

The To-no-nun[234] is the chief of the Owu-tu-nun,[235] or body attendants upon the sovereign, the others being the Binazun, the Buko- no, and their followers. This head eunuch is the fourth personage in the realm—royalty not included. He is the minister of the palace interior, beyond which his authority does not extend; he attends the King’s person, and on great occasions he interprets between the women officers and strangers. Outside, he commands the corp of eunuchs, who have an especial residence in the city. During the late Gezo’s reign, he was on great occasions the organ of communication between his master and the Meu; it was also his duty to rinse out the glasses in which toasts were drunk, and to swallow the water, a custom now obsolete. The present incumbent is very old, with a peculiarly baboon-like countenance, and it is hardly possible to distinguish him from a senior of the other sex. He affects silver horns and a blue broadcloth long coat, of quasi-European cut, which, trivial as the comparison may appear, forces upon the mind the idea of a magnified blue-bottle fly; and he loves to buzz about as fast as his emaciated limbs can carry him. He had a narrow escape at the accession of the present ruler: properly speaking, he should have accompanied his liege lord to Deadland. Gezo, however, left express orders that he must be spared, lest, in the hands of a young and inexperienced king, the ceremonial of the Dahoman Court might suffer let or change. He is now safe, as he is held to have been re-emplaced by the Gbwe-wedo,[236] who is called To-no-nun or chief eunuch “for the present King.” By the custom of this strange kingdom there is a chief To-no-nun, eunuchess “of the inside.” She is called the Yavedo,[237] and her second in command, the sub-To-no-nun for the present King, is the Visese-gan.

The Kan-gbo-de[238] is another personal attendant, whose duties, like those of the To-no-nun, do not extend beyond the palace gates. He is the chief of the royal huissiers, and inspects the guards at the several entrances. He wears round his neck a large silver bell, and his attendants have similar but smaller articles, to proclaim silence before the King speaks: they also precede the royal steps, to remove any sticks or stones likely to offend. The late dignitary attached to the old king used to present strangers; he was, however, permanently degraded for wilfully riding on horseback up to the royal gate. The present holder of the office is a young man, and his assistant, forming the normal Dahoman “happy pair,” is the Kakokpwe, the dignitary who met us at Whydah. The chief warrior of the Kan-gbo-de is the Ko-ko’aje, who, having been captured at the attack on Abeokuta, was bought by a gentlewoman, and converted into a husband and Abeokutan “gentleman.” The Dahomans swear that he must be retaken.

The Bi-na-zon,[239] whom the missionaries, ever thinking of Pharaoh, call “chief butler” for the worst of all possible reasons, is the King’s head store-keeper. He has charge of the royal cloth, cowries, and rum, and thus he corresponds with our “treasurer.” He is a subject, and not of the blood-royal; but a pleasant fellow withal. The corresponding officer of the inside, is called the Vi-de-k’alo.

[Footnote 191: There is this kind of man at every negro court. The “Narrative of the Portuguese Expedition of 1798-99” exactly describes Buko-no-Uro in the person of “Fumo Anceva,” at the Court of the Muata Cazembe.]

[Footnote 192: When Commodore Wilmot was at Agbome he gave silver watches to many of the chiefs. The main-springs were all broken at the first opportunity, but they did not the less “sport” these ornaments on all public occasions.]

[Footnote 193: The African keeps you waiting with an exemplary _calme_: if you keep him waiting he shows all the restiveness of a wild animal. This is generally the case with barbarians; I have remarked it in the South of Europe.]

[Footnote 194: Meaning bush (gbwe), cotton-tree (hun), road (’li, for ali).]

[Footnote 195: Klan is a jester, a clown; ái (heart), hun (drum), dá (play), to (father).]

[Footnote 196: The “cartwheel” is here called “alogwe”; by the Egbas, “okiti.”]

[Footnote 197: These wallets are of three kinds: the single bag of skin, called “glo”; the large double pouch of the same material, known as “akpataklo”; and the cloth sack named “váté.” The History tells us that jesters used to amuse Agaja the Conqueror, by swallowing tubs full of frumenty, and that these men generally stuffed themselves to death in a few years.]

[Footnote 198: In this land the umbrella is a rude kind of curiologics, faintly resembling European blazonry, and an armourist could tell the troops from the flag. In symbolism they precede Mexican writing. The newly-made caboceer is presented with a virgin-white article of palace manufacture, and he is expected to illustrate it by his actions. The principal figures are knives and decapitated heads and faces, cut out of cloth and sewn on the alternate lappets of the valance. The knives are straight, and shaped like a butcher’s, the handle blue, the blade red. The face is ruddy, with white eyes; and the head, which is clean cut off at the neck, wears an azure cap shaped like the East Indian ear-cloth.]

[Footnote 199: The King’s eldest brother, Godo, is never seen in public. A tall, dark, and unprepossessing man, and a notable drunkard, he was set aside by his father, who, after the affair at Abeokuta, nominated his second son, Gelele, as the most likely of the family. In any Asiatic country such a senior brother would certainly be put to death, and in many the younger brothers would be either blinded or be rendered imbecile by medicines. So far Dahome is mild in her manners.]

[Footnote 200: Many are made of tin. There are two shapes: one, the thimble-formed, with lateral openings; the other, somewhat like a small mushroom or a giraffe’s horn, with ridgelets radiating from the centre of the domelet.]

[Footnote 201: As will appear, the highest officials in the land (excepting only the blood royal) are _bonâ fide_ slaves to the king, and therefore cannot say what they please.]

[Footnote 202: It consists of a number of thatches enclosed in a clay wall and surrounded by fine palm plantations.]

[Footnote 203: The consequence is, that white men for the most part, and black men when they dare, take their own measures at Whydah. Before my arrival a merchant shipmaster having been robbed by a mulatto clerk, put him into the hands of a Brazilian slaver. The latter hung up the culprit by the thumbs and lashed his wrists tight to a pole, pouring upon them a powdered wood like sand, which caused the flesh to swell with intolerable pain. It reminded me of the days of 1724-25, when John Gow, the pirate, would not plead. “The judge ordered that his thumbs should be squeezed by two men with a whipcord till it did break, and then it should be doubled till it did again break, and then laid threefold, and that the executioners should pull with their whole strength.”]

[Footnote 204: The favourite ornament of the flag, like the umbrella, is a blue-handled red-bladed knife on each alternate valance-flap, the other being occupied by decapitated heads wearing the East Indian kan- top, or ear-cap, which the Egbos call “filla,” having probably derived it from the Fulas.]

[Footnote 205: As these people have no written language, anything that happens in the kingdom, from the arrival of a stranger to an earthquake, is formed into a kind of song, which, rhythmless and rhymeless, is taught to professional men, and is thus transmitted to posterity. The stranger, however, may find himself strangely named. European nomenclature not being pleasant to negro ears and tongues, every white man in the land has, as on the Gold Coast, a nickname. The Father Superior of the French mission is known as Nyan gli—“Padre Curto,” opposed to a tall brother, Nyan gágá, “Long father.” Another missionary, M. L——, being of highly nervous temperament, was dubbed Penan, or papaw leaf, which resembles the aspen. Mr. Beecham, being much addicted to meat, and walking about with rounded shoulders, became Kpon ’akra, the hunchback-vulture. I at once was known as Kwabna, Tuesday, from landing at Whydah on that day, and afterwards as “Ommoba,” from a well-known Fanti character.]

[Footnote 206: The first bayoneteers were organized by the old Meu, or second minister, in the days of King Gezo: at first they were 200 in number. The reader will bear in mind that the _corps d’élite_ and the officers in the Dahoman army are the same amongst the women as amongst the men.]

[Footnote 207: Gan’u (conquering), nlan (any animal). Thus I explain Mr. Duncan, vol. i. p. 236: “Next came a regiment belonging to a country called Ginoa, commanded by a female of the same name. This regiment consisted only of 300 women. This corps make no prisoners, but kill all.”]

[Footnote 208: This word must not be confounded with agbájá, a cartridge-box, which Mr. Duncan (vol. i. p. 226) erroneously writes agbwadya.]

[Footnote 209: Mr. Duncan (vol. i. p. 216) was “amused by the vanity of the old governor of Whydah,” who showed a great anxiety to precede him, with a view of showing superiority, and, presently riding up, ordered to the rear his attendant, who seemed mortified. In Dahome the introducer precedes the presentee, but not with any idea of superiority.]

[Footnote 210: Or Banyanyamme, a strong name given by the builder, Gezo, when he was substituted for his eldest brother. It is not intelligible to my interpreters.]

[Footnote 211: In Dahome these swish steps are called “ko-hwe.” The palace and the city gates are allowed five; chiefs have four tall or five short, and all others three, or as the King directs. The singbome, or double-storied building, 30 to 40 feet high, and described by old visitors at Kana, no longer exists.]

[Footnote 212: Locally called “Pwé,” the Abeokutan “Okpo.”]

[Footnote 213: For an explanation of the Bo Fetish, see chap. xvii.]

[Footnote 214: The only Englishman known to have been admitted into the King’s sleeping chamber was Mr. Norris, who, in 1773, described it as a neat detached room, separated from the court in which it stood by a breast-high wall, the top of which was stuck full of human jawbones. The little area within it was paved with the skulls of neighbouring princes and chiefs, placed there that the King might trample upon them.]

[Footnote 215: This is said to be a Whydah word, the name of a town “broken” by one of the elder kings.]

[Footnote 216: Apparently a favourite old weapon. Mr. Norris mentions, in 1772, a “blunderbuss with five barrels.”]

[Footnote 217: There are no regiments, properly so-called, as supposed by Mr. Duncan.]

[Footnote 218: Said to mean “We are all captains.” The word is variously spelt Miegan, Minghan, and by the History, Tamegan. The Abeokutans call him the “Otton.”]

[Footnote 219: M. Wallon erroneously ranks the Mingan after the Meu. He makes the same mistake in saying that the Gau and the Po-su are equal. Mr. Duncan (p. 231) casually alludes to the “Me-gah, the King’s principal jailer,” and as wrongly tells us “the higher officers of the household are allowed to adopt their official titles as their family names (N.B., there is none), Mayho (for “_the_ Meu”) being in the Dahoman language, Prime Minister.”]

[Footnote 220: She is thus alluded to by Mr. Duncan, vol. i. p. 248: “The head or commander of one of his majesty’s female regiments, named Godthimay.”]

[Footnote 221: There are many ways of writing this word. Commissioner Forbes prefers Agaow, M. Wallon, Gao, and the History, Agaow, with a suspicion of derivation from the Turkish Agha!]

[Footnote 222: Ahwan (war), and gan (a captain). This rank includes all officers that can bring ten to a hundred dependants or slaves into the field.]

[Footnote 223: Meaning Khe (bird), tun (hammering), and gàn (metal).]

[Footnote 224: The Zoheino of the History.]

[Footnote 225: The word is said to mean “his raiment fits him.” It is spelt with more or less error, Mayho, Mayhoo, Mahu, Mehou (there is no aspirate, but a diæresis), and Mayo. The Egbas of Abeokuta translate the title “Osin.”]

[Footnote 226: Mr. Duncan (vol. i. pp. 250-251), describes a horrible scene “in which poor old Mayho, who is an excellent man, was the proper executioner.”]

[Footnote 227: Eight years ago, M. Wallon made him ninety. But negro longevity is very uncertain in these lands, where, to sum up the almost diabolical wisdom of the white man, people say “He knows his own age.”]

[Footnote 228: Covetousness: a common Ffon phrase is, “E su nukun” (he has a big eye). Mr. Duncan (vol. i. p. 217), calls him an “excellent old man, and very different from the generality of uncivilised Africans, not having that covetous and selfish disposition usual with them.” Now it is notoriously the contrary.]

[Footnote 229: Bi (all), wan (love), ton (belonging to), meaning that the King’s love is over all those whom he has made.]

[Footnote 230: Hence Mr. Duncan’s Apadomey regiment, and Apadomey soldiers (vol. i. pp. 232, 233).]

[Footnote 231: The Phussopoh of the History.]

[Footnote 232: I have alluded to this dignitary in chapter ii. The name is written by Commander Forbes, Possoo, and by M. Wallon, Poissou.]

[Footnote 233: Akhi (market), si for asi (a wife), no (mother).]

[Footnote 234: To (town), no (mother), nun (mouth), meaning that all must obey him. Commissioner Forbes writes the word Toononoo, and M. Wallon, who understood even less of the language, Tolonnou.]

[Footnote 235: From Owu (a body). These personal attendants are entirely distinct from the warriors.]

[Footnote 236: “Otton-iweffa” is the title of the second chief eunuch at Yoruban courts.]

[Footnote 237: Ya (they), vedo (think).]

[Footnote 238: Kan (rope), ’gbo (cut, or finished), and de (octroi, or town dues). This is an enigmatical title, after true Dahoman fashion, alluding to the official having command of the rear guard. When the rope which, stretched across the road, forms the turnpike of these regions, is removed by the master of the custom-house, all can proceed. Commander Forbes spells the word Camboodee, and M. Wallon translates it “Grand Chambellan.”]

[Footnote 239: Bi (all), na (I), zon (walk).]