At The Yearly Feast, All These Animals Are Sacrificed At The Fetish-House, In Which A Little Of The Blood Is Spilled On The Ground.

The whole of them are then cooked, and the king and all the people, men and women attending, partake of the meat, drinking copiously of pitto (the country ale).

It is stated, moreover, that it depends on the will of the fetish-man, or priest, whether a human being or a cow or other animal is to be sacrificed. If a human being, it is always a criminal, and only one. The usual spot where the feast takes place is a large open field before the king's houses, under wide-spreading trees, where there are two or three fetish houses.

The usual mode of burying the dead in this country is, to dig a deep narrow hole, in which the corpse is deposited in a sitting posture, the elbows between the knees. A poor person is interred without any ceremony; in honour of a rich man, guns are fired, and rum is drunk over his grave, and afterwards in the house by his friends and retainers. At the celebration of a marriage, pitto is circulated freely amongst the guests. Wives are bought, and according to the circumstances of the bridegroom, so is the price. The first question asked by every caboceer and great man was, how many wives the king of England, had, being prepared, it should seem, to measure his greatness by that standard; but when they were told that he had only one, (and, if they had felt disposed, they might have extended their information, by telling the inquirers that she was too much for him,) they gave themselves up to a long and ungovernable fit of laughter, followed by expressions of pity and wonder how he could possibly exist in that destitute condition. The king of Youriba's boast was, that his wives, linked hand-in-hand, would reach entirely across the kingdom. Queens, however, in Africa, are applied to various uses, although in some countries at some distance to the northward, it is a difficult question to solve, whether they be of any use at all, except for the purpose of entailing an extraordinary expense upon the people, who have to labour hard for the support of the royal appendage, which is generally imported from a neighbouring country, where pride, pauperism, and pomposity are particularly conspicuous. It would be well for an admirer of queenship to take a trip to Eyeo, to see to what uses queens can be applied; for there they are formed into a body-guard, and their majesties were observed, in every part of the kingdom, acting as porters, and bearing on their heads enormous burdens, in which they again differ from the queens of the more northern countries, where, fortunately for the natives of it, they never bear at all. The queens of Eyeo are, to all intents and purposes, slaves, and so are also other queens; but then they are slaves to foolish and ridiculous customs, to stiff starched etiquette, and to ceremonies degrading to a rational being.

The Eyeos, like other nations purely negro, are wholly unacquainted with letters, or any form of writing; these are known only to the Arabs or Fellatahs, who penetrate thither in small numbers; yet they have a great deal of popular poetry. Every great man has bands of singers of both sexes, who constantly attend him, and loudly celebrate his achievements in extemporary poems. The convivial meetings of the people, even their labours and journeys, are cheered by songs composed for the occasion, and chanted often with considerable taste.

The military force of the kingdom consists of the caboceers and their immediate retainers, which upon an average may be about one hundred and fifty each, a force formidable enough when called out upon any predatory excursion, but which would seem to be inadequate to the defence of the territory, against the encroachments or inroads of the Fellatahs, and other more warlike tribes. It was supposed by Captain Clapperton that the army may be as numerous as that of any of the kingdoms of Africa. No conjecture was offered as to the total population, but nearly fifty towns occurred in the line of route, each containing from six to seven thousand, and some fifteen to twenty thousand souls, and from the crowds on the roads, the population must be very considerable.

The Youribanies struck the travellers as having less of the characteristic features of the negro, than any other African race which they had seen. Their lips are less thick, and their noses more inclined to the aquiline shape than negroes in general. The men are well made, and have an independent carriage. The women are almost invariably of a more ordinary appearance than the men, owing to their being more exposed to the sun, and to the drudgery they are obliged to undergo, all the labours of the land devolving upon them. The cotton plant and indigo are cultivated to a considerable extent, and they manufacture the wool of their sheep into good cloth, which is bartered with the people of the coast for rum, tobacco, European cloth, and other articles. The medium of exchange throughout the interior is the kowry shell, the estimated value of which has been already given. Slaves, however, form the chief article of commerce with the coast. A prime slave at Jannah is worth, sterling money, from three to four pounds, according to the value set on the articles of barter. Domestic slaves are never sold, except for misconduct. His majesty was much astonished at learning that there are no slaves in England. Upon the whole, the Youribanies appeared to be a gentle and a kind people, affectionate to their wives and children, and to one another, and under a mild, although a despotic government.

Among the domestic animals of this country, there are horses of a very small breed, but these are scarce.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 148 of 302
Words from 150541 to 151540 of 309561