The Power Of
The Sovereign Is, However, By No Means Unlimited.
In all affairs of
importance, the king calls an assembly of the principal men, or elders,
by whose councils he is directed, and without whose advice he can neither
declare war nor conclude peace.
In every considerable town there is a chief magistrate, called the
_Alkaid_, whose office is hereditary, and whose business it is to
preserve order, to levy duties on travellers, and to preside at all
conferences in the exercise of local jurisdiction and the administration
of justice. These courts are composed of the elders of the town, (of free
condition,) and are termed _palavers_; and their proceedings are
conducted in the open air with sufficient solemnity. Both sides of a
question are freely canvassed, witnesses are publicly examined, and the
decisions which follow generally meet with the approbation of the
surrounding audience.
As the Negroes have no written language of their own, the general rule of
decision is an appeal to _ancient custom_; but since the system of
Mahomet has made so great progress among them, the converts to that faith
have gradually introduced, with the religious tenets, many of the civil
institutions of the Prophet; and where the Koran is not found
sufficiently explicit, recourse is had to a commentary called _Al
Sharru_, containing, as I was told, a complete exposition or digest of
the Mahomedan laws, both civil and criminal, properly arranged and
illustrated.
This frequency of appeal to written laws, with which the Pagan natives
are necessarily unacquainted, has given rise in their palavers to (what I
little expected to find in Africa) professional advocates, or expounders
of the law, who are allowed to appear and to plead for plaintiff or
defendant, much in the same manner as counsel in the law courts of Great
Britain.
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