Chapter XXI: Dahome and Her Capital

The extent and population of Danh-ho-men-to (“the Land of Dahome”) have been grossly exaggerated. Dr. M‘Leod, who never left Whydah, Commander Forbes, and M. Wallon, have assigned to this inconsiderable province of the Great Oyo or Yoruban empire, the wide region between the so-called Kong Mountains on the north, and the Bight of Benin on the south, a depth of two hundred miles. The rivers and lagoons of Lagos, others say the Niger, are made the eastern, while the Volta River and the Ashantis become the western frontier. This gives a breadth of one hundred and eighty, making a total area of 36,000 square miles.

Such boundaries may have been, although I greatly doubt them: now we must reduce Dahome to nearly one-tenth. Her northern frontier, bordering on the Makhis, is a water called Tevi, eighteen hours of hammock, equal to forty miles, from Agbome, giving a maximum direct distance of one hundred miles. On the north-eastward, beyond the tributary Agoni tribes, are the Iketu and other Nagos or Yorubans, who have been plundered, but never subjected. To the north-westward are the semi-independent race of Aja,[207] of Attakpame,[208] and others. The extreme extent, fifty miles, narrows towards the south, giving the province a pyriform shape. The base between Godome or Jackin, the easternmost settlement, and the frontier between Whydah and the turbulent independent Popos, cannot exceed twenty-five to thirty miles. Assuming, therefore, forty miles as the medium breadth, we obtain a superficies of 4000 square miles. Moreover, as has been shown, this small black Sparta is hedged in by hostile accolents. “Porto Novo” and Badagry, to the eastward, have fallen into European hands, whilst the Popo republics, on the west, are safe in their marshes. The people of Agwe “came in” last year, and were received by the King,[209] but they will add an element of weakness. Dahome will crumble to pieces under the first heavy shock.

The numbers assigned to the kingdom vary greatly, and are all guess- work. Commander Forbes proposes 200,000; M. Wallon raises it to 900,000; Commodore Wilmot reduces it to 180,000, which I would further diminish to 150,000,[210] of whom, perhaps, four-fifths are women and children. The population is thus not a third of what the land could support. The annual withdrawal of both sexes from industry to slave-hunting and the Customs at the capital, the waste of reproduction in Amazons, and the losses by disease and defeat, have made the country in parts a desert. So contemptible is the African power which is perhaps the best known throughout Europe! And so strong is eccentricity to attract notice!

Agbome first appears upon the stage of history in 1724, and since that time there has been a regular intercourse between England and Dahome, which has now a small literature of her own.[211] The _enceinte_ of the capital is perhaps larger than that of any other Ffon town, but the population certainly does not exceed that of Whydah. It is, of course, floating, and perhaps at times may have reached the figures assigned to it by Commodore Wilmot—20,000 souls. The site, like that of Allada, is a rolling plain or plateau—these people ever prefer high ground—ending in short bluffs to the north-west, where it is bounded by a long depression,[212] suggesting the action of eluvium, grassy, and streaked with long lines of trees, where water must lie, if not flow, in the wet season. Scattered over this hollow are the principal pans which scantily supply the city. Beyond the valley the country again rises towards the Makhi Hills, whose jagged blue summits look enticingly mysterious to the traveller. Amongst them, Minefin and Bowule[213] are described by the people as high, cold, and abounding in game, especially wild hog: their land wind is cooling and healthy. These hills, which may be considered the threshold of the so-called Kongo region, supply the granitic and schistose stones used by the people for grinding grain. A glance at the map shows that between the Benin Gulf and the Niger the land is prismoidal, with a long southern slope, and a shorter northern counter- slope to the Great River.

Let us now circumambulate the _enceinte_ of Agbome, which has already been partially described. Beginning from the southern, or Ako-chyo Gate, which issues upon the Komasi Palace and the adjacent suburb of Bwe-kon, about one mile leads us to the Kana-’gbonun, or eastern gate, by which we first entered the city. The land between them is grassy, dotted with palms, and showing by its ridges that the hoe was once active. Crossing the village of little fetish huts at the Kana Gate, we bend northwards, leaving to the right a path leading to the Kido, or north-eastern water- pits. The country continues the same, and amongst the few farmsteads we are shown Dokon, or Addokon, the Yevogan’s hereditary village. Hugging the “zun,” or acacia bush of the moat, we pass a hole pierced through it where the side is shallowest. Here begins a double line of circumvallation, protecting the settlement from the north-east to the north-west, including the principal waters, especially the King’s, and probably intended as a defence against an equestrian enemy.[214] The extreme distance between the false and the true _enceintes_ is more than a mile, and the interval is overgrown with bush and grass, with here and there a hut or a dwarf field. If we follow the outer line of ditch, the path falls, by a succession of steps, with outcrops of iron-stone, into the valley between Agbome and the Makhi Mountains. On the way, four or five tall trees, which here distinguish the moat entrances, point out the Tohun-’gbonun,[215] or north-western gate, in the false _enceinte_. It is a small and poor approach, leading to a water called Nyassa.

Crossing, however, the ditch before reaching the Tohun-’gbonun we pursue a goat track through grass, wild egg-plants, and neglected plantations, leaving on our right, or northwards, the first slope of the great depression. After ten minutes we reach the Agesi-’gbonun,[216] or northern gap, opening upon the direct road to the Diddo or royal water, and upon a path bending N.-East to the Nyassa pans. Opposite us the north-western arm of the false _enceinte_, is crossed by the Alo-ma-bli- nen-’gbonun,[217] built by King Gezo. If we would avoid this, we pass through the Agesi-’gbonun into the _enceinte_, when a few yards conduct us to a shrubby and apparently unguarded gap, the Tavosa-’gbonun[218]: it opens to the N.-West, and the moat is spanned by a clay dyke with a steep sag. Resuming from this point our walk, after ten minutes of peasants’ path through neglected fields, we find the Agbo-e-ja-ga,[219] which conducts to the palace of Tegbwesun (Bossa Ahadi). Here begins the large exterior suburb, stretching from the N.-West, and spreading over the country to the S.-West. Agbome, like other cities, is “going out of town”; and the newer is decidedly the cleaner and the prettier locality. In this part the _faubourg_ is called Adan-do-kpo-ji. Passing _en route_ the Lise-hun-zo or palace of Sinmenkpen (Adahoonzou II.), lying south of the former, we find under fine trees a Nesu-hwe, or Nesu temple, fronting a clear and cleaned space. A little beyond it lies a large double gate, the Adan-do-kpo-ji, through which the King passes when visiting the manes of his ancestors. The suburb here straggles out, and on all sides appear farms and plantations of palm trees, which, however, grow better inside the _enceinte_, where they are not scorched by bush fires. Near the entrance is another Adan-blon-no-ten, an open space where the King sits and swears: a gateless passage over the moat, known as the E-Oyo-nagba-’gbonun,[220] connects it with the southern extremity of the inner town and with the Kpo-go-e-ji,[221] a broad street near the Komasi Palace, where a few market wives daily assemble to sell cankey and other provisions. There is a similar out-door bazar near the Agbome Palace, called the Kechli-’li, or “road of Kechi,” a Whydah caboceer. Continuing our southerly course under a Vo-sisa or Afa charm to prevent disease, in the shape of a gallows furnished with a dead dog, hung head downwards, we reached the Uhun-jro market, and the Ako-chyo-’gbonun, where our walk began. Each King builds his own gate at the time when he is allowed to raise a palace of swish. Thus the total number, including the Tohun-’gbonun and the Alo-ma-bli-nen-’gbonun, the sister entrances through the false _enceinte_, and not including the gap, is eight. The circumambulation required two hours, equal to five miles.[222]

To one walking round the inner _enceinte_, Agbome appears even to less advantage. The aggerose surface is pitted with the deep holes common in Yoruba towns: these earth diggings are alternately filled with offals, foul vegetation—especially the unwholesome croton plant (_Croton Tiglium_)—water, and mud, the latter drying, as in Whydah, to the consistency of common ashlar. The circumference cannot be more than four miles, occupying an hour and a-half; two-thirds of it is a fine open country, scattered with trees and fields of bean and vetch, mostly choked by dense grasses veiling the ancient furrows. To the west and south-west, the buildings cluster thickest, and _latrinæ_ being unknown, the ground about them is very foul, the Mosaic precept being utterly neglected.[223] Agbome is as truly Dahoman as Washington is or was United States,—a typical place. Somewhat like old and despotic Cairo, it is a mass of villages, which under any but the present barbarians would soon grow to be a city. When inspected, however, the composing elements are found to be the palace carcases and a few large establishments belonging to the principal officers and their retainers. The conspicuous feature in the town is the Agbome House, a rude circle, measuring, if we cut off the various angles, 2560 paces in circumference. The gates of the Queens are, as has been seen, in the north and north-western walls: those of the Kings are in the eastern and southern sides. Amongst the most conspicuous of these are the Patin-sa, the Han-ho-nukun-ji,[224] the Agrin-go-men, the Cowrie House, the Akwaji, the Singbo-men, and the Adan-jro-ko-de, which some writers have confused into different palaces;—they have all been alluded to in previous pages. To the north of the Agbome, as was said, is the venerable but decrepid Dahome House, and around both are the “compounds” of the chiefs, miniature copies of the royal abodes and jealously separated by bush and trees for privacy and in fear of fire. To the south-west of the Agbome palace is a thick clump of houses, extending to the town ditch, and divided only by the Uhun-jro market-place from the Komasi House. The two royal houses in the Adan-do-kpo-ji are also surrounded by compounds, and the same may be said of the Bwe-kon-hwe-gbo and the Jegbe Palaces.

The great drawback at Agbome during the dry season, is the deficiency and the badness of the water. An Artesian well, or at least a Bletonist, would be a boon. As a rule the supply is white with clay, and must be a fertile source of dysentery. Often it is chalybeate; and, at the best, it is stagnant. For some reason, superstitious or despotic, the lieges are not allowed to dig wells; perhaps the gravelly nature of the soil, and the depth of excavation required, would place the operation beyond their powers. Supplies must be fetched, therefore, by the Sin-no, or water wives, from the great depression bounding the town-plateau to the north and north-west, where it is found in shallow pits, pans, and holes cut near the larger pools to filter the element. As the nearest habitations are distant two, and the farthest five, miles from these _abreuvoirs_, the path is trodden day and night with heavy monotonous toil. Those who want the water anywhere near the royal supply must begin early, the women of the palace issuing after dawn, and keeping all clear for themselves. Male Dahomans have lately been forbidden the road to Diddo, the King’s water; holding ourselves, however, not included in this prohibition, Mr. Cruikshank and I resolved to visit it.

Setting out at four on a misty morning, with two “Naureo,[225]” but without interpreter or hammocks, we already found a thin string of carriers on the way. After the Agesi-’gbonun, or northern gate, we skirted the western arc of the false ditch, and presently fell into the slope of the great depression. The ground was disposed in little steps, ridges, and sheets of the usual reddish and large-pored iron-clay stone, congested as if fused. Half-an-hour’s walk from the city led us to a thick bush, garnished with huge trees, and the tremendous din of women who were baling water with calabashes into their jars, told us that we had arrived at our destination. Some wretches, wearied out, were sleeping in the cleared places, with pots by their sides, and there had been many breakages. The principal pits are those on the left of the arenose path; they are cleaner than those of Nyassa and Kido, which show an offensive scum, whilst the surrounding swamp savours of decay. After our inspection we followed the northern road, till we reached a house built across it, and occupied by Jabwa, warden of the wells. Beyond this point, but turning to the right, before entering the bush, there is another water called Danh-to-men.[226]

The “Minister of the Interior” is badly supplied at Agbome, and the provisions are dearer even than at Whydah. Prices have quadrupled during the last six years, the effect of an ultra-military policy; and very often, as in a famine, no inducement will make men part with their store. We tasted beef once only during our stay; the Tsetse fly abounds, I believe, in the bush, but in the towns black cattle are plentiful, a small bullock fetching 10 dols. to 16 dols. The mutton and goat’s-flesh are equally lean, stringy, and tasteless, and the whole animal must be bought; the sheep costing 2 dols., or half the price of its more odiferous congener. Pigs are worth more than goats; in the palace they are purely fed, elsewhere they find themselves. I never saw horseflesh, which was eaten of old. Dried fish is sometimes sent up from the sea- board. Turkeys, rare at Kana and Agbome, fetch 1 dol. 50 cents; Guinea fowls and Manilla ducks, half-a-crown; and poor thin pullets, two shillings each. Poultry, however, are seldom to be bought, especially at the present season, when they are being sacrificed by order of Afa. There are also a few pigeons. Eggs are not sold, perhaps under the conviction that they will fetch more as pullets—when obtainable they are worth 8 cents per dozen. Milk is not used,[227] and animals seem to labour under a natural agalaxy.

There are, as has been said, four large and many smaller markets. At the latter, the principal sale seems to be of water, grain, vegetables, and a few fruits; the former is sold in pots, of various sizes, and, according to quality, commands, at this season, from a halfpenny to a penny per gallon. The cankey-ball (Dahome’s quartern loaf) fetched under the old king, three cowries—it is now worth twelve. The principal, if not the only, grains are maize and Guinea-corn, whose manifold preparations have been alluded to. The vegetables are beans and vetches, of various kinds; yams, tolerable; groundnuts, common; sweet potatoes, plentiful at Whydah, rare here; manioc, sold boiled as well as raw; ferine, _i.e._, farinha, “wood-meal,[228]” much used at Agbome and at Whydah; and many kinds of greens, especially the excellent occro, or esculent _Hibiscus_, locally called “Fevi,” or “Nye’un”; while chives, or small onions, are sold in every bazár. The fruits are oranges, mostly bitter, except those in the royal gardens; plantains and papaws in plantations; limes, somewhat acerb; cashews and rare cocoas; mangoes, guavas, and wild pine-apples, which, wanting water, run to leaf. The tamarind is everywhere disregarded, even in the King’s house. The ginger is very poor. A little sugar and salt can be bought or borrowed, red pepper is abundant, and the black variety is unknown. As has been said, all the liquor is of the vilest, and the traveller should land at Whydah, where even beer is often unprocurable, with all his stores. It may be said of the Dahoman as of “poor Paddy,” that he

“On basest food pours down the vilest drink.”

There are small patches of small-boled wild cotton, in the town, giving false promise of better things to men of strong faith. The wild indigo is sold in cakes, and is the common cloth-dye of the country; its colour is excellent, but no amount of demand would produce a regular supply here.

The list of animals in Dahome is not extensive. Elephants have been killed out, lions are known only by name; hyænas—the local “resurrection men”—and bush-cats are common. The people are fond of porcupines, hares, and of a large grey and sometimes dark-brown rodent, called by Mr. Norris “Agouti,” and formerly by the blacks “Cabra do matto.[229]” It is killed by a trap falling upon it, split, skewered, and carbonadoed with the skin on. An average specimen brings a head of cowries, and the flesh, as cooked by the natives, is good; I never saw a live specimen. Small antelopes are found in the bush surrounding the capital, and it shelters monkeys, which the people gladly devour. There is a yellow specimen called kra-ve,[230] which seeing the gun before the latter is fired, causes the barrel to burst—a reason explaining the frequent accidents. Hunters speak of the Gha (غا), or Inaki of the Egbas, a huge anthropoid ape, formerly found about Gbezumen, a village one day’s journey from Whydah, and they make its cry to resemble that of the gorilla. There are also fabulous animals. The Aziza, for instance, is a sylvan beast, erect, manlike, and loud-voiced: it teaches the hunter fetish, and makes him wondrous brave.[231] Many birds have legends attached to them. Kites (the _Falco Chilla_ of India) are eaten, and magic medicines are made from the Afunsoko’u, or white-breasted raven (_Corvus Senegalensis_), also called Aze-khe, or man-eater. It is here supposed to be a “devil” (bad ghost), and to talk; as with the Egbas, no rain falls when it lays its eggs, and its flocking denotes impending war. The owl, too, is an Aze-khe, or cannibal, a messenger of anthropophagi, who would kill and devour a foe; men and boys will often be seen carrying these small grey birds by the legs. The turkey-buzzard is respected for its utility. No one will kill the “King’s bird,” a small _motacilla_, termed Awáje’khe, which consequently becomes tame as a wren; the Nago women are supposed to talk to and to understand it. The cuculine “Scotchman” is a “devil-bird,” causing the gun to burst. Mr. Cruikshank shot several specimens, but—_n’importe_; it is called “_Wu- tu-tu_,” an onomatopoetic word, exactly expressing its note.[232] There is a _muscicapa_ called Berille, which disregards the burning bush, when attacking the expelled locusts, therefore the soldier is ordered to be “brave as the Berille.” Ring-doves, large and small, abound through the country, and were noticed by Phillips. There is a fine spur-fowl known as Koklo-asso, or bush poultry, heavier birds and darker than the English partridge, short winged and good runners. They are best killed with No. 3 shot. In the first year they are good eating, and they are found in coveys throughout the _enceinte_, when not built over. A single quail was seen, and the few herons and water birds were very wild. We could not collect many specimens, being compelled to confine our rambles to the vicinity of the town.

The tenure of land throughout the empire is in “fee-simple,” allodium, as amongst us, being unknown. Agriculture is despised, because slaves are employed in it. The people, however, are not ignorant of husbandry. The women ridge the ground neatly with their little hoes, and some, more industrious, dispose over their crofts the huge heaps of kitchen-midden that have grown about their houses. Were its cultivation enforced, the oil-palm as has been said, would be a mine of wealth, and the roads to the coast, except in a few places, are good enough for wheeled vehicles. But there is scant inducement to amass riches, of which the owner would assuredly be “squeezed” as often as he could support the operation.

Dahome, like Yoruba, perhaps I may say like eastern and western intertropical Africa generally, is a red soil,[233] and prodigiously fertile. This is “dead dries,” when the algid breath of the desert wind blows strongly, making all a dust. Yet even the poles planted in our yard put forth green leaves.

Agbome is higher, drier, and less unhealthy than Whydah. After eight years’ weathering, the swish walls show little damage here. The Harmattan[234] season lasts from December to January, and is followed by the hot months of March and April, when tornadoes usher in tolerably heavy rains. The wet weather begins in May, or sometimes, as in 1863, late in June. About September there is a break, called the harvest-time or the Little Dries. October and November are the later rains, generally accompanied by severe tornadoes, and by tremendous storms of thunder and lightning. The climate, in fact, is that of inner Yoruba.[235]

The modern Dahomans, I have said, are a mongrel breed, and a bad. They are Cretan liars, _cretins_ at learning, cowardly and therefore cruel and bloodthirsty; gamblers, and consequently cheaters; brutal, noisy, boisterous, unvenerative, and disobedient, dipsas-bitten things, who deem it a “duty to the gods to be drunk”; a “flatulent, self-conceited herd of barbarians,” who endeavour to humiliate all those with whom they deal; in fact, a slave race—vermin with a soul apiece.

Furca, furax, infamis, iners, furiosa ruina,

describes the race. They pride themselves on not being, like the Popos, addicted to the “dark and dirty crime of poison;” the fact is, they have been enabled hitherto to carry everything with a high and violent hand. They are dark in skin, the browns being of xanthous temperament, middle- sized, slight, and lightly made—my Krumen looked like Englishmen amongst them[236]—agile, good walkers, and hard dancers, that carry little weight. Their dress is a godo, or T-bandage, a nun-pwee (undercloth), or a Ffon chokoto (pair of short drawers), and an owu-chon, or body-cloth, twelve feet long by four to six broad, worn like the Roman toga, from which it may possibly be derived.

The women are of the Hastini or elephant-order, described by the Reverend Koka Pandit, dark, plain, masculine, and, comparatively speaking, of large, strong, and square build. They are the reapers as well as the sowers of the field, and can claim the merits of laboriousness, if of no other quality. They tattoo their skins, especially the stomach, with alto-relievo patterns; their dress is a zone of beads, supporting a bandage beneath the do’vo, or scanty loin- cloth which suffices for the poor and for young girls; the upper classes added an aga-vo, or over-cloth, two fathoms long, passed under the arms, and covering all from the bosom to the ankles. The peculiarities of their _coiffure_ and ornaments have been explained.

Neither sex ever “wears shirt, shoe, or stocking in their lives.” Yet, as an old traveller remarks, at least this advantage results from their simplicity of dress, that “of both sides they may see their tackle before they go to work, and not, as we are forced to do, take wives at all adventures, without knowing their bodily defects and deformities, which are covered and concealed by their clothes.” And even those who deny that climate makes the man will not refuse its claim to making the tailor. European attire in Africa is as void of the fitness of things as an African toilette would be in Europe. Here leather perishes, broadcloth loses nap and stiffens, linen and cotton mildew or change colour, gloves feed cockroaches, and flannels shrink to half size.

[Footnote 207: The Aja are known by three short cuts on the cheek; the Nago, by three long, with various combinations. There are sundry sub- tribes, as Ajabikome, Ajawachi, and Kpese (the “Peshie” of the History), whence the trade went to the Popo and Quitta countries. They are described as worshipping thunder; a point of resemblance with Yoruba. The French call them Les Barbares.]

[Footnote 208: The Attahpahms of Commander Forbes. They must not be confounded with the proper Takpas of the powerful Nigerian kingdom Nufe. In Mr. Norris’ map they are made to extend to the north-west of Agbome. I have met amongst the slaves and bush women lower lips pierced to admit a bit of coral, and when asking the tribe, was generally answered “Takpas.”]

[Footnote 209: This took place before the Komasi Palace, when Commander Wilmot was at the capital. The head men, with their wives, came up and made obeisance, after which the whole deputation received presents of rum, cloth, and cowries. Finally they were dismissed to their homes, with leave to live in peace and quiet till wanted by the King for war.]

[Footnote 210: I judge this from the numerical force of the armies. The disproportion of sexes is caused by polygamy, and the greater risk and exposure of the men.]

[Footnote 211: See “History of Dahomy” (pp. 20, 28). Forbes, “Dahomey and Dahomans” (vol. i. pp. 4, 5), and preface to those volumes.]

[Footnote 212: Not a “deep ravine,” as Commander Forbes calls it.]

[Footnote 213: Possibly the “Boagry” of the History, which the map places W.N.W. of Agbome. Mr. Duncan (Vol. i. chap. 1) calls it “Gboowolley.”]

[Footnote 214: We read in the History that when the Oyos attacked Agaja the Conqueror at Agbome, and were repulsed by him, they filled the deep moat in the hurry of their flight, and thus made a bridge for the others to escape by.]

[Footnote 215: To (stream), and hun (the hole whence it issues). According to some, “Tohun” is a proper name.]

[Footnote 216: So called from some individual.]

[Footnote 217: Alo (hand), má (don’t), bli (roll), nen (virility)—a queer name for a gate.]

[Footnote 218: Tavosa, also a proper name.]

[Footnote 219: Agbo (gate), e (he), ja-ga (goes out), _i.e._, the outward-leading gate.]

[Footnote 220: Said to be a proper name, meaning he will break down Oyo.]

[Footnote 221: Interpreted Palm roof-tree corner.]

[Footnote 222: Commodore Wilmot says “probably seven miles round,” but this was not after actual inspection.]

[Footnote 223: Deut. xxiii. 13.]

[Footnote 224: The words mean Han (sing), ho (speak), nukun (eyes), ji (top, or upon).]

[Footnote 225: Here Krumen are so called from the words signifying “good morning” in their tongue; we left the hammock-men, whose perpetual fear of punishment after our departure would have laboured hard to mislead us.]

[Footnote 226: Danh (snake, or rainbow), to (water, sea, pool, or stream, opposed to sin, drinking water), and men (in).]

[Footnote 227: Dr. M‘Leod (1803) found “milk used as food, a custom not generally practised on any other part of the south-west coast of this continent.” In his day, cattle, sheep, goats, and poultry were exceptionally plentiful.]

[Footnote 228: The root is ground as potatoes for starch: it is again sun-dried, and partially ground to the consistence of oatmeal, when it can be eaten dry or with water.]

[Footnote 229: A name formerly applied by the Portuguese to dog’s flesh, which is still relished here.]

[Footnote 230: Of this animal wonderful tales are rife throughout Yoruba.]

[Footnote 231: The Aja of the Egbas is a dwarf, who carries off men to the bush, and teaches them magic and medicine.]

[Footnote 232: This is much as if we were to call a crow a “caw,” and a sheep a “baa”—expressive but childish.]

[Footnote 233: Hence, in Senegal, the old French name, “Le terrier rouge,” anglicized by “Red Borough.”]

[Footnote 234: The Harmattan wind, here called Wuo, is a supernatural being, not unlike the Giant of Egba. This black Æolus is shut in a cave, under a guardian called Wuo-hun-to, who, after oiling his own body, which would otherwise be cut up by the wind, opens the gate and lets his charge issue to torment the world. It is curious to find a Cave of the Winds in Yoruba.]

[Footnote 235: Mr. Cooley, the self-styled “Opener of Inner Africa,” has lately (Athenæum, July 18, 1863) informed the world, that “the rainy season is also the hot season, near the equator.” Is this dotage? Barbot (book 3, chap. xii.) informs us that the Guinea year has two seasons, the summer and winter (of the Portuguese and English), called good and bad by the Dutch; high and low by the French. “Summer (_i.e._ hot dry weather) begins in September, and lasts the five following months, and the winter (_i.e._ cold wet season) holds the other six months of the year, which are also divided into two rainy, two misty and rainy (or smoky), and two windy and rainy months (our tornadoes).” So of the Great Bandy (or Bonny River, with which he was personally acquainted), he says (book 4, chap. viii.), “We reckon the months of October, November, and December, the worst season, because of the dry scorching heat of the sun.”]

[Footnote 236: In all wrestling bouts, my Krumen threw the hammock- bearers on their heads, and on one occasion, during a kind of party fight, six of them, with fist and stick, held their own against twenty Dahomans.]