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the town, disguised in a mask, and to destroy all who may chance to fall in his way; but as notice is given by the Gong Gong, or bellman, of his intended nocturnal visit, it is but seldom any person loses his life. Europeans receive notice, and are requested not to leave their houses on the evening of his appearance, as the devil in Lagos is no respecter of persons. The fellow who performs the part comes from one of the villages on the opposite side of the lake; and the inhabitants of Lagos are certainly much alarmed at his visits, and inquire from their neighbours, the following morning, in whispers, how they fared during the night.

"Besides the public warning usually given on such occasions, the devil always makes his appearance at full moon; so that if the King should be out raking, he may not mistake his royal master for a subject, although it would be a favourable opportunity to rid the people of a tyrant."

Other curious African circumstances are detailed in the following:

"Male dogs are banished to the towns opposite to Lagos; for if any are caught there, they are immediately strangled, split, and trimmed like sheep, and hung up at the door of some great man, where rows of the putrid carcases of their canine brethren are often to be seen. They are fetiche, and intended to countervail the machinations of the evil spirit.

"At the eastern extremity of the town, there are a few large trees, which are covered with the heads of malefactors. The skulls are nailed to the trunks and large

limbs, and present a very appalling spectacle.

"The town swarms with water rats from the lake, which burrow in the ground, and are so audacious that they not unfrequently make their appearance under the dinner-table while the guests remain sitting at it.

"In the centre of the market at Grewhe, there is a large tree, very similar to the mulberry, except that the branches grow horizontal.

"This tree presents a most extraordinary spectacle; for along its branches, thousands of bats, of the largest species, hang suspended by their claws, and with their heads downwards, during the day, and do not seem to be at all disturbed by the noise beneath them, although not in a state of somnolency. I shot several, each of which measured, between the extremities of the wings, two feet; the form of their head bears a strong resemblance to that of a horse, but having the eyes, teeth, and whiskers of an immense rat.

"One of the singular customs of the people of Grewhe, as well as those of Popo, is the admission of females into the order of priesthood; a custom which has not been noticed by Governor Dalzel in his History of Dahomy. An account of the ceremony practised on this occasion may be amusing to the reader.

"A young female, generally the daughter of a Fetiche Man or priest, is selected for the purpose, who undergoes a probationary penance that continues six months, previous to her admission into holy orders. During this period, she is initiated by the priests into all the mysteries and chicanery

chicanery of the religion of their forefathers, which consisted in the worship of the black and white snake, and in the mummery of giving sanctity to bones, rags, &c. "When she appears in public during the period of her probation, her manner is grave and solemn; her skin is painted with a kind of white clay; rows of shells, of various forms and sizes, are hung upon her neck, arms, and ancles; and her loins are girt with long grass, which reaches to her knees. A dwelling is provided for her, in which she eats and sleeps alone, and into which none are admitted but fetiche men and women. At the expiration of the six months a large assemblage of men, women, and children, accompanied by the various orders of priesthood, and the musicians belonging to the town, takes place on an open space of ground, to assist at, and also to witness, the last grand ceremony.

"Soon after assembling, the women form a circle by joining hands, among whom are the companions of the noviciate's youth, and also her relations, who commence dancing circularly, reversing the movements alternately, after making one complete circle. The dancing is accompanied by the most barbarous and horrid din imaginable, caused by the musicians beating on drums, tom-toms, gongs, and blowing horns manufactured out of elephants' teeth and reeds; to which are added the most strange and uncouth grimaces and contortions of the faces and bodies of the priests, so that a spectator might easily imagine them to be a number of maniacs, who had been turned loose to give

effect to the ceremony: and were it not for the presence of the little children, who look on, with fear and astonishment depicted in their countenances, would be no bad representation of Pandemonium.

"The noviciate, soon after dancing commences, is brought out, by apparent force, from a little but which had concealed her from the spectators, and placed in the centre of the circle formed by the dancing females, from whom she endeavours to escape to the hut whence she had been brought, and this she is allowed to accomplish. This ceremony is repeated three times; an incantation is then delivered by the chief priest, and the farce ends.

"One of the conditions by which a female is admitted into the order of priesthood, is that of leading a life of celibacy, and renouncing the pleasures of the world: and but few are admitted to enter it at all."

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We may append to this general picture the portrait of a rich savage of Ardrah:

"The government is republican, although some of the leading men exercise over the common people a kind of influence derived from hereditary right, and seem to divide the power of governing them with others who have acquired considerable wealth by their commercial dealings.

"These men, when they appear in public, either on visits of ceremony, or for recreation, are always attended by one or two hundred domestic slaves and retainers, who are armed with clubs, cutlasses, and other weapons.

"The most wealthy man in the town is Tammata, but who is bet

ter

ter known by his European name Monsieur Pierre. He is a native of Housa, and was originally a slave and taken to France by the master of a French vessel, when very young. Being a sharp boy, he was sent to school, where he was taught reading, writing, and accounts; and his services to his master, during his trading voyages to Africa, were afterwards so beneficial, that he gave him his freedom, and assisted him to commence business on his own account, by granting him credit to a considerable amount. Speaking the Housa, Eyeo, and French languages, his business (that of a slave merchant) became very extensive; and he soon outstripped his competitors in wealth and influence : as these increased, his dwelling was enlarged, the number of his wives and domestics augmented, and his whole establishment assumed something of a royal form. His house contains upwards of thirty apartments, and his seraglio nearly as many wives; and the whole is surrounded by a high mud wall, which encloses an area of about ten statute acres. His furniture is a mixture of French and African; for, although he is ostentatious in the display of his European finery, his taste is pure African. He dresses as an European; and his dejeunés and dinés are quite à la mode de Français, of which a number of French officers are constant partakers, Monsieur Pierre sitting at the head, and performing the honours of the table. At his back are arranged a number of his youngest wives, who wait upon him exclusively, and place before him those dishes adapted

to his taste; which consist of vegetables, fish, and animal food, highly seasoned, well buttered with palm oil, and wherein potash is mixed in lieu of salt, and which seasoning is very commonly used as a substitute for salt by the natives of Ardrah, Housa, and Eyeo. His wives tasted each dish in his presence, and before it was placed on the table; a precaution he is in the constant habit of having performed by them, in order to deter them from mixing any thing in his food of a deleterious quality. Silver forks are appendages of his table; and I was often amused at the dexterity he displayed in their use, although he sometimes forgot himself, and thrust his black paw into the dish, instead of the fork, which disconcerted him for the moment, as it generally excited among his European guests a hearty laugh at his expense, which he by no means relished. Had one of his wives or domestics relaxed a muscle of their face on such an occasion, their liberty would, in all probability, have been forfeited for the offence. He is a man of naturally quick parts, but combined with a savage disposition, which neither education, nor a constant intercourse with Europeans, has at all ameliorated; and the acquisition of considerable property has operated upon him in the same manner as we often perceive it does on the low and vulgar in civilized countries, by rendering them arrogant, despotic and overbearing, and who, if they had the same power as this African savage, would probably sacrifice, with as little remorse, the liberties, and even the lives of human beings, who might

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"Monsieur Pierre is naturally avaricious; the increase of his wealth therefore created an increased desire to secure it. He caused a considerable excavation to be made under one of the interior apartments of his dwelling, by a number of his domestic slaves, by whom, and his confidential females, the secret only was known; and to secure the secret still further, he had the poor fellows who made the excavation put into sacks, and conveyed to the sea-side by a number of Fantee canoe men, who afterwards took them on board of a French ship, then on the point of sailing for the West Indies.

"He gave (a little before I went to Ardrah) a proof of the ferocity of his disposition, by ordering the keeper of his slaves to be beheaded for having allowed two of them to escape; and the headless trunk of his body, I saw tied up in a mat, and lying exposed in a hole, from which clay had been taken, and very near the gate which led to his dwelling. Among his European acquirements, that of blowing the French horn was his favourite, as he generally gave a few flourishes upon it every evening, especially when any traders belonging to Hio Hio had arrived from that kingdom, before whom he was very proud of exhibiting his skill. He is an excellent player at billiards, and has a large billiard-table placed in a room built expressly for the purpose, the walls of which are mud lined with split bamboo, over which a fine paper is ingeniously placed; and against it there hangs several por

traits of the various members of the Bourbon family. Elegant sofas and chairs complete the furniture of the apartment."

"Human sacrifices are not so frequent here as in some parts of Africa; yet besides those immolated on the death of great men, three or four are annually sacrificed at the mouth of the river, as votive offerings to the sea, to direct vessels to bend their course to this horrid climate.

"It is expected that every vessel, on her arrival, will fire a salute the instant the anchor is let go, as a compliment to the black monarch, who soon afterwards makes his appearance in a large canoe, at which time all those natives who happen to be alongside of the vessel are compelled to proceed in their canoes to a respectful distance, and make way for his Majesty's barge. After a few compliments to the captain, he usually enquires after brother George (meaning the king of England), and hopes he and his family are well. He is not pleased unless he is regaled with the best the ship affords; and, on returning to his canoe, expects to find a little store of sugar, tea, butter, white biscuit, and wine. Presents of greater value and bulk are sent to him in the ship's boat. His power is absolute; and the surrounding country, to a considerable distance, is subject to his dominion. His war canoes are capable of carrying one hundred and forty persons each, and have often a gun of large calibre mounted on the bow. He has destroyed the town of New Calabar twice, and boasts of having eaten part of the heart of its king.

His

His Jew Jew, or fetiche house, is ornamented with rows of the skulls of captives taken in battle.

"The iguana is the Bonnians' fetiche, or Jew Jew; and these reptiles may be seen crawling about the town, where they are caressed and fed by the natives; and he, into whose house one of them enters, thinks himself most fortunate. One day, when thirty or forty canoes surrounded the vessel, an iguana was discovered near the middle of the river, proceeding to Peter's side, which is opposite to Bonny, when all the canoes immediately pushed off; and great was the contention among them, as to who should reach the reptile first, and ferry it to the spot, to which it seemed to be bending its course. When they returned, I joked with them, and stated my belief that their hurry proceeded not so much with a view to help the iguana quickly over the river, as to prevent the Calabar Jew Jew (the shark) from catching it: but they said the shark dare not touch it. Had there not, however, been at the time a strong tide running when the sharks usually remain at the bottom, the Calabar deity would have swallowed at a mouthful the Bonnians' object of adoration. The sharks in this river are enormously large, and so so numerous that scarcely any living thing that falls overboard escapes them, however promptly assistance may be rendered: and I have witnessed some distressing scenes caused by them. This voracious fish is, as I have before remarked, the Calabarians' Jew Jew; and a great number of them frequent the creek before the town, where they are regularly fed. A crimi

nal is compelled to swim over the creek, which is a species of ordeal; and a more certain means of destroying him could scarcely be devised, yet giving him something like a chance for his life, for not one in twenty escape: those who do are pronounced innocent. - -

"Human sacrifices are common. When a chief dies, many of his wives are destroyed, and interred with him. -

"Some of the traders have become extremely opulent in consequence of the great extent to which the trade in slaves has been carried on by them, and are in possession of European articles to a considerable amount, especially unwrought iron and copper. There is so large a mass of the former accumulated in King Pepple's house, that it is supposed, by its continually increasing quantity, to be buried as many feet under the ground as above it; viz. six or eight feet.

"A trader here, named John Africa, and who has been several voyages to England, is endowed with an extraordinary memory. I have known him to have open running accounts with fourteen or fifteen vessels at the same time, wherein the debit sides exhibited long lists of various articles received by him at different periods on credit; yet he could tell to a bunch of beads the exact state of each account when he came to settle it, although he could neither read nor write. He possesses a natural talent for irony, which the following anecdote will show :

"A considerable part of the town was destroyed by fire, on which occasion many of the traders lost much property, one of whom was John Africa. The

captains

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