The People Thus Sacrificed Are Generally Prisoners Of War, Whom The King Often Puts Aside For This Purpose, Several Months Previously To The Celebration Of His Horrid Festival; Should There Be Any Lack Of These, The Number Is Made Up From The Most Convenient Of His Own Subjects.

The number of these victims sometimes amount to several hundred, but about seventy are the average number.

Their bodies are either thrown out into the fields, to be devoured by vultures and wild beasts, or hung by the heels in a mutilated state upon the surrounding trees, a practice exceedingly offensive in so hot a climate. The heads are piled up in a heap for the time, and afterwards disposed of in decorating the walls of the royal simbonies, or palaces, some of which are two miles in circumference, and often require a renewal and repair of these ornaments.

An anecdote is related of king Adahoouza, who, on a successful attack upon Badagry, having a great number of victims to sacrifice, ordered their heads to be applied to the above purpose. The person to whom the management of this business was committed, having neglected to make a proper calculation of his materials, had proceeded too far with his work, when he found that there would not be a sufficient number of skulls to adorn the whole palace; he therefore requested permission to begin the work, as the lawyers would say, de novo, in order that he might, by placing them farther apart, complete the design in a regular manner; but the king would by no means give his consent to this proposal, observing that he would soon find a sufficient number of Badagry heads to render the plan perfectly uniform, and learning that a hundred and twenty seven were required to complete this extraordinary embellishment, he ordered that number of captives to be brought forth and slaughtered in cold blood.

On visiting the bed-chamber of Bossa Ahadee, the passage leading to it was found to be paved with human skulls. They were those of his more distinguished adversaries, captured at different times, and placed in that situation that he might nightly enjoy the savage gratification of trampling on the heads of his enemies. The top of the little wall, which surrounded this detached apartment, was adorned likewise with their jaw-bones. In some more civilized minds there is an instinctive dread on viewing the remains of a human being; but it cannot be laid to the charge of these savages, that the fear of ghosts and hobgoblins forms any part of their character.

The immolation of victims is, however, not confined to this particular period; for at any time, should it be necessary to send an account to his forefathers of any remarkable event, the king despatches a courier to the shades, by delivering his message to whomsoever may happen to be near him, and then ordering his head to be chopped off immediately; and it has not unfrequently happened, that as something new has occurred to the king's mind, another messenger, as Mr. Canning very justly observed of the postscript of a letter, has instantly followed on the same errand, perhaps in itself of the most trivial kind.

It is considered a high honour where his majesty personally condescends to become the executioner in these feats of decapitation, an office in which the king, at the time of the visit of Lander to Abomey, considered himself as a most expert proficient. The Europeans were present on one occasion, when a poor fellow, whose fear of death outweighing the sense of the honour conferred on him, on being desired by the king to carry some message to his father, who was in the shades below, humbly declared on his knees that he was ignorant of the way, on which the tyrant vociferated, "I'll show you the way," and with one blow made his head fly many yards from his body, highly indignant that there should have been the least expression of reluctance.

The performance of the annual sacrifice is considered a duty so sacred, that no allurement in the way of gain, no additional price which the white traders can offer for slaves, will induce the king to spare even a single victim of the established number; and he is equally inexorable with respect to the chiefs of his enemies, who are never, on any account, permitted to live if they fall into his hands.

In illustration of the above, the following narrative is highly characteristic, and serves at once to a clear exposition of the savage and relentless feelings of the uncivilized negro. In a warlike excursion towards the Mahee or Ashantee borders, an enemy's town was surprised, and a great number of the inhabitants were either killed or made prisoners; but especial care was taken that the head of the prince of that district should be sent to Abomey, and that every branch of his family should, if possible, be exterminated, for it was one which had often given the Dahomian forces a great deal of trouble. A merciless massacre, therefore, of these individuals took place, in obedience to strict injunctions to that effect; and it was believed that not one of the breed was left alive.

A youth, however, about seventeen years of age, one of the sons of the obnoxious prince, had managed to conceal his real quality, and not being pointed out, succeeded in passing among the crowd of prisoners to the Dahomian capital, where, after selecting that portion thought necessary for the ensuing sacrifices, the captors sent the remainder to Grigwee, to be sold at the factories. This young man happened to be purchased by Mr. M'Leod, and he lived thenceforth in the fort, as a sort of general rendezvous, or trunk, as it is called, for those belonging to that department.

In a short time after this transaction, it some how transpired at Abomey that there yet lived the remnant of the enemy's family, and in order to trace him out, the king fell upon a scheme, which strongly displays that species of cunning and artifice so often observed among savages.

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