CHAPTER VI
MISCELLANEOUS.
African Cities—Forms of "Compounds"—Native Food—Cloth-ing—Industry—Percolator—Blacksmiths—Iron-smelting—Weaving—Farming Implements—Indigo—Palm-oil Facto-ries—"Taffi"—Traders—Personal Habits—Cola-nuts—Na-tive Affability—Onoshoko, "Father of the King"—Polygamy—Slavery—African Honor—ymmetry of Form—Calisthenics—Archery—Native Games of Skill—Stray Fact—Wild Bees—An Adventure—Funeral—Processions—Discovery of Abbeokuta.
IN African native cities there are no streets such as would be called so in a civilized country. The houses or compounds are scattered according to the discretion or taste of their owners; lanes, always crooked, and frequently very narrow, being left between them. These dwellings are sometimes very large, including in many instances accommodation for from twenty to two hundred inmates, especially in those of some of the wealthier chiefs, which are sometimes tenanted by over three hundred people.
The usual form of a compound is square, and is bounded by a wall against which the rooms are commonly built. The walls are of mud, but are sometimes very straight and smooth. In some of the mission-houses, which are likewise of mud, but plastered, a stranger would not suspect the material.
In the area within the inclosure are gathered their sheep, goats and so forth, at nights. In almost every one of these dwellings there is a large dove-cot, in which are bred hundreds of common domestic pigeons. They are very fond of raising chickens, ducks and other poultry.
The food of the Egbas, as well as of all the tribes between Lagos and Ilorin, is very simple, consisting chiefly of a preparation called eko: corn is macerated in water until fermentation ensues. It is then crushed between stones, and the chaff separated by washing. The milky liquor is then boiled in large pots until it assumes a consistency somewhat stiffer than cream, which as it cools becomes as firm as jelly. The taste is rather unpleasant at first, but one seldom fails to like it after persisting in its use. A portion of it nearly as large as a penny-roll, wrapped in leaves, is sold for five cowries, or about a mill. An adult native consumes from four to eight at a meal, taking with it as a relish a few spoonsful of obé, or "palaver-sauce," as the Sierra Leone folks call it. Palaver-sauce is made by cooking together palm-oil, pepper, ocros,[1] locust-seed, ogiri and several esculent herbs. Leaving out the ogiri, which stinks dreadfully, obé is certainly very fine, but the natives greatly prefer it with ogiri, just as certain Epicureans do tainted venison. Ground beans and pepper, fried in oil, called acras, cooked yams, beaten with water in a wooden mortar, fufu; with certain other preparations of corn, rice, etc., also form part of their diet. Native beer or oti is plentiful, cheap and sometimes good. It is made either from maize or Guinea corn. As with the brewing of beer in civilized countries, the grain is suffered to germinate in order to develop saccharine matter. They have, however, no means of arresting fermentation, and hence the beer can not keep. Another very fine drink is made from the sap which flows from incisions made in the palm-tree.
The people are not nude, as many suppose Africans to be generally. Of course we except children, and even they are not always so. The apparel of a man consists of a shocoto, cloth and cap. The shocoto is a sort of loose trowsers, fastened with a string directly above the hips. He dispenses with the cloth when at labor. Instead of this cloth the wealthy wear a tobe, a loose large garment, worn over the shoulders, and falling below the knees: they are generally handsomely embroidered. Sometimes, however, a cloth of velvet, silk or some other expensive material is substituted. Instead of the shocoto, men and boys are sometimes seen with garments made exactly like the kilts of the Scotch Highlanders; the cloth too is worn in much the same way as the Highlander's plaid. The attire of the women is even more simple, consisting of one or two cloths passed round the body. They wear besides a sort of turban, and in a few instances, another cloth over the breast and shoulders. The costume of some Africans costs as much as that of many of the most extravagant dandies of civilized countries.
We met several of those individuals who though entirely of Negro parentage, are white, from the absence of pigmentum or coloring matter from the skin, hair and eyes; both in features and texture of hair, however, they still resemble the Negro. But little is known of this phenomenon, notwithstanding the fact that it is common to all races of men, and even to inferior animals, white horses, birds, mice, etc., being often seen. A fact which we observed, is perhaps not yet known, namely, that between the albino proper, and those in whom there is a normal development of pigmentum, there are individuals possessing more or less color, so that if a series were formed embracing both extremes, the difference between any consecutive two would be hardly perceptible. The first digressions are characterized by a reddish tinge of hair, and complexion in harmony, but difficult to describe. These characteristics are observed still more prominent in other individuals, and thus on, till some are found with complexions as light as mulattoes, although not otherwise like them. From these the deviation still continues, till at length the perfect albino is found. Albinos, whether of the Indian, Negro or white race, are not uncommon in America, but they seldom attract attention, as without particular observation they seem like ordinary white men. For instance, one of the most prominent editors of a daily newspaper in New-York, is an albino. The term was first applied by the Portuguese towards these people. They can not well endure exposure to bright daylight, their eyes lacking the protection which is afforded to others by the color in the iris, etc.
Not long since, and even now, there are not a few who regard the African to be like the snake or alligator, a lazy creature, whose life is spent basking in the sunshine, and subsisting on roots and herbs or what-ever else of food within reach of his arm. A Negro friend of mine mentioned to no less a personage than a professor in a medical school in America, that he had read in the work of Denham and Clapperton, that women are commonly seen in Africa spinning by the road-side, and selling boiled potatoes, roast-meats, etc. "Nonsense," said he, "that is all English romance: can you believe such folly?" Nevertheless I assert, and appeal to every one who has visited this section of Africa to verify my assertion, that there is not a more industrious people on the face of the earth. Rise as early as you please and enter a native compound, and you will there find the women engaged at their varied occupations. Go at night as late as you please, and there by the feeble light of her lamp she is seen in the act of labor, spinning, weaving or preparing food for the ensuing day. There is not a child among the Akus—I say nothing of other African tribes—who is not instructed in some means of realizing a living. The men are builders, blacksmiths, iron-smelters, tanners and leather-workers, tailors, carpenters, calabash-carvers, weavers, basket, hat and mat-makers, farmers: the women weave, spin, dye, cook, brew, make pots, oils, soap and I know not what else.
Not many years since, much attention was excited among practical chemists by the invention of the Percolator, an apparatus for extracting in a very short time the virtues of medicinal herbs, etc. Essentially the same contrivance is used, and has been used from time immemorial by the native Africans, in making lye from ashes for the manufacture of soap, and for dyeing, A small aperture is made in the bottom of a large earthen vessel, which is covered with straw and then filled with ashes. This is placed over a similar vessel, so as slightly to enter it. Water is then suffered to percolate slowly through the first vessel into the second, which as it does so extracts all the soluble matter from the ashes.
Although the native blacksmiths frequently execute very fine productions of their art, yet their apparatus is very rude. They work sitting on the ground. Their bellows is hewn out of a block of wood about three feet long, and six or seven inches deep, in the form of two cups connected by a tube, to the middle of which another tube of clay is attached, through which the current of air is propelled. The two cavities are each covered with a sack of untanned hide, and a stick of wood about three feet long is fastened to each sack. A little boy having hold of the ends of these sticks, lifts and depresses them alternately, and thus secures the action. Although different in appearance, these bellows operate on the same principle as those of civilized construction. For fuel they use charcoal made from the hard shell surrounding the kernel of the palm-nut.
I passed through two iron-smelting villages on the road between Oyo and Isehin in Yoruba, but they were not in operation, as the war, of which mention shall be made hereafter, had driven the inhabitants into the larger towns for protection. The furnaces, or the portion of them above the surface of the earth, are made of clay. They are in the form of cylinders, about thirty inches high; the diameter of the bases about six feet. A hole is made in the upper base, communicating both with six or seven similar holes around the convex surface, and, by a small orifice, with a large cavity underground and beneath the cylinder. In this, immediately under the orifice, I found a mass of slag. They use charcoal for fuel, which they produce in abundance in the forests in the midst of which these villages are usually located.
The apparatus of the weavers is very simple. There are two kinds, one used by the men, producing cloth of only a few inches in width, and another by the women, producing cloth as wide as of English manufacture. The men can make cloth of an indefinite length: the apparatus used by the women limits the length of the cloth to about two and a half yards. I forbear a description of either of these contrivances, as such as I could make would hardly be intelligible.
The implements of the farmers are only two, a bill-hook and hoe. The hoe is not bad in itself, but very badly mounted for use by a civilized farmer. The handles are short, rendering it necessary for the opera-tor to stoop in using them. The soil is prepared by heaping the surface-earth in hills, close together and regularly in parallel lines. Cotton, yams, corn, cassava, beans, grow close together in the same field.
The beautiful blue, almost purple dye of their cloths is not from the common indigo-plant of the East and West-Indies, but from a large climbing plant. The leaves and shoots are gathered while young and tender. They are then crushed in wooden mortars, and the pulp made up in balls and dried. For dyeing, a few of these balls are placed in a strong lye made from ashes, and suffered to remain until the water becomes offensive from the decomposition of vegetable matter. The cloths are then put in, and moved about until sufficiently colored. There are dyeing establishments in all the towns from Lagos to Ilorin.
Palm-oil factories, as one would suppose from the quantity of the oil exported from Lagos and other parts of the West-African coast, are very numerous. The process of extracting the oil is simple. The nuts are gathered by men. From one to four or five women separate them from the integuments. They are then passed on to other women, who boil them in large earthen pots. Another set crush off the fibre in mortars. This done, they are placed in large clay vats filled with water, and two or three women tread out the semi-liquid oil, which comes to the surface as disengaged from the fiber, where it is collected and again boiled to get rid of the water which mechanically adheres to it. The inner surface of these clay vats, having at first absorbed a small quantity of oil, is not afterwards affected either by the water or oil. It is said that palm-oil loses its color by being kept for some time at the boiling temperature.
No part of the palm-nut is wasted. The oil being extracted, the fibre, which still retains some oil, is dried and used for kindling. The kernel is used for making another oil, adi, excellent for burning in lamps and making native soap. The hard shell or pericarp is burnt for charcoal and used by the native blacksmiths. They prepare several other kinds of oil, such as agusi, beni, and ori, or shea butter. The last, which possesses medicinal virtues, is now exported from Abbeokuta.
Palm-oil, considering the profit which it brings the manufacturer, the abundant growth of the plant which yields it, and the great and increasing demand for it, is destined to become of great commercial importance.
The native women all through the country prepare from the juice of the sugar-cane, by boiling, a sort of "taffi." The cane is cut in short bits, crushed in a large wooden mortar, and the juice wrung out, filtered and boiled to the consistence of candy. While at Ilorin and without sugar, we often used this preparation to sweeten our coffee. The reader, who knows any thing of the process of sugar-making will perceive from this that all the knowledge necessary to make these people sugar-makers, is that a small quantity of lime must be added to the juice in order to correct the acidity which begins to generate as soon as it is expressed. In this way many of the peasantry of the West-Indies prepare their own sugar, and often also for sale.
The Akus are great traders. Such a thing as over-reaching them in a bargain is unknown. In no instance do they ever charge for an article what they expect to get for it. "How much for this?" says the purchaser. "One head," replies the vender. "Won't you take forty strings?" "Bring on your cowries," is the reply. "Won't you take thirty strings?" "Bring on your money:" and thus on until the minimum is attained, when he replies: "Not a cowrie less." If the price suits the purchaser, well; if not, he passes on to another trader, when much the same dialogue ensues.
Several of the personal habits of the natives are remarkable. The men universally shave, not only the beard, but the eye-brows, within the nostrils, (the na-tive razors are adapted to this,) and frequently the entire head. Many leave a strip of hair from the fore-head, over the crown of the head, down to the back of the neck. The Mohammedans leave also a little tuft of hair on the chin. We met two or three men at Ilorin with whiskers. The margin of the eye-lids is blackened with pulverized sulphuret of antimony, which every native carries about with him for the purpose. The women dye the palm of the hands, finger-nails and feet with ground camwood. Sometimes when about to participate in religious observances, their entire person is colored in this way. They pay great attention to the teeth, using the chewed ends of certain roots for the purpose of brushes, as do the people of the West-Indies, where the custom was doubtless introduced by Africans. Except some little children, we met nobody who did not use tobacco. It is used in the form of snuff, not taken into the nostrils, but on the tongue. A small quantity of benin-seed and of lubi, a native impure carbonate of soda, is ground with the snuff. They use the Brazilian roll-tobacco, about twenty per cent of the weight of which is treacle. There are a few who smoke, principally emigrants from Sierra Leone, Cuba and the Brazils. As might be expected, the use of ardent spirits is very common; yet the natives are seldom seen drunk, the regulations of their Ogboni lodges for-bidding it.
Cola-nuts, (cola acuminata,) a bitter and slightly astringent vegetable, are used by all, although in some places expensive. It probably counteracts the effects of the laxative character of their food. Whenever any one wishes to show particular mark of respect to his guest, he presents him, with great formality, a few cola-nuts. A little boy or girl brings a covered vessel, the best in the house, and prostrating, presents it. Abundant thanks and salutations follow. They have a proverb which says: "Anger draws arrows from the quiver: good words draw cola-nuts from the bag."[2]
There is not a more affable people found any where than are the Akus. Not even Frenchmen are more scrupulous in their attention to politeness than they. Two persons, even utter strangers, hardly ever pass each other without exchanging salutations, and the greatest attention is paid to the relative social position of each in their salutations. Equals meeting will simply say, acu; but one addressing a superior affixes some word to acu, thus, acabo, (acu abo, [3]) acuni, etc The superior usually salutes first, and when the disparity of position is great, the inferior prostrates. The young always prostrate to the aged. Women kneel, but never prostrate. Sons, without reference to age or rank, prostrate to their mothers or senior female relatives. They never suffer any thing to interfere with the observance of these courtesies. There is an appropriate salutation for every occasion for instance: acuaro, good morning; acuale, good evening; acushe, for being industrious; acabo, or acuabo, (ua as diphthong,) for returning from a journey; acatijo, for long absence; acujoco, for sitting or resting; acudaro, for standing or walking; acuraju, expressive of sympathy, in distress or sickness; acueru, for bearing a burthen; acualejo, for entertaining a stranger. So rich is the language in salutations, that the above list could have been increased indefinitely.
At Oyo, the capital of the Yoruba nation, there is an old man, apparently in a very humble position, for no one is more condescending and courteous than he. He is, nevertheless, no less a personage than the Onoshoko, or "Father of the King," an officer of state so called. In the event of the king's demise, the privilege of choosing a successor devolves on him; hence his position is really very exalted: besides, he is the party with whom the king is bound to advise on all important affairs. It is customary for men in high positions, the king's relatives, chief Balaguns, and so forth, to construct in front of their houses certain turret-like contrivances, called by them akabi. The king offered Onoshoko to construct akabis in front of his house, as his position and rank demanded them. "No," said the old man, "Onoshoko is well enough without akabis. Let not any one be able to say, from my example, that he too must have akabis: honor belongs to the king only." He is the only man in the kingdom who is privileged to approach the king without prostrating, nevertheless he insists on doing so, explaining his conduct always by the remark that he, in his respect to the king, would ever be an example for others to copy. The king himself, determining not to be outdone, whenever Onoshoko enters the palace-yard, prostrates to the old man; and it is common for those about the palace to see one of them stealthily approaching the other, in order first to assume this position of respect.
Except with the few Africans who have been brought under the influence of Christianity, polygamy is universal. A man's position in society is estimated either by his bravery in war, or his wealth; and he can only manifest the latter by the number of his wives, children and slaves. From this circumstance men are frequently reported wealthy, and yet in emergencies can not raise ten bags of cowries, (about $40.) Wives are commonly engaged at an early age, frequently before six or seven years old. This is done by paying to the parents a stipulated sum, and occasionally making presents both to them and the betrothed. When the engagement is concluded, a brace-let is placed about the wrist to signify the new relation she sustains. She remains with the parents until of proper age to be taken home to her husband. If she comes with honor, two or three days after, adorned with costly cloths and jewels, and with music, she marches with a large company of maidens through the city, to receive the congratulations and presents of her friends, which are generally on such an occasion very liberally bestowed. Otherwise, the parents are made to refund the whole amount advanced in engaging her, and the guilty partner to her infidelity, if known, is prosecuted for adultery. If the intended husband is a youth, never before married, his mother, or less frequently his father, makes the engagement for him; and the parties are respectively kept in ignorance of each other until they are both of suitable age to live together.
A less troublesome way of procuring a wife, with many, is to resort to the slave-marts of Ilorin at once, money in hand, and make their choice. The latter, of course, are slaves, as well as their children, between whom, however, and other slaves, there is some distinction. Wives procured according to the first of these methods, although not regarded as slaves, are practically as much so as the others, for like them, at the death of their lord they become nominally, and often really, the wives of his eldest son, except, of course, his own mother, They have, however, the privilege of choosing the next elder son, or of observing ever after a state of celibacy, which but few wo-men would choose, as it is regarded reproachfully.
According to their means of procuring them, men possess from a single wife to two or three hundred. Except the chiefs there are few, however, who have more than about twenty. The Yoruba king at Oyo, Adelu, who is reputed the wealthiest man of the Akus, maintains about three hundred wives.[4] They are never suffered to leave the palace-yard, except on certain days, when they march in procession through the town in charge of eunuchs, of whom the king has a large number. Men are not suffered to approach them in these excursions. The King of Ilorin and other great personages of his court also keep their wives always confined. In this case, however, they are supported. In Abbeokuta, where even the wives of the king must support themselves, they are permitted to go abroad, and are generally among the most industrious traders of the place.
Inquiry is sometimes made as to whether wives agree among themselves. I answer, they do, as well as a number of women living in the same house can under other circumstances: at any rate, their disputes do not arise from the fact that they are all the wives of the same husband. There is always one, only one, who is intrusted with the domestic affairs of her lord, and to her all the others pay the greatest deference, and they expect the recently married to receive more favor than others: making this philosophic calculation, they are saved much of what, under a different and purer system of morals, would be highly irritating and disgusting.
After polygamy it may be appropriate to make a few remarks respecting its sister evil, slavery, which exists all through this section of Africa. Although the term "slavery" is the only word by which the institution can be properly designated, it is certainly not of the same character as the American institution, there being but little disparity between the condition of the master and that of his slave, since the one possesses almost every advantage accessible to the other. Slaves are often found filling the most exalted positions: thus at Abbeokuta all the king's chief officers are his slaves, and they are among his most confidential advisers. On certain state occasions, one or other of these slaves is often permitted to assume in public the position of the king, and command and receive in his own person the homage and respect due to his master. So in Ilorin, Dungari, the prime minister of the king, daily sits in the market-place to receive the homage of the populace intended for the king, and yet Dungari, really the most important personage of the kingdom, and in rank even above the king's own sons, is a slave. Instances of this kind might be afforded almost indefinitely.
Slaves are procured chiefly by conquest, sometimes in warfare as justifiable and even more so than the wars waged among civilized nations; at other times predatory, and undertaken solely for their capture. Not a few incur slavery as a penalty for crime. Some are sold to defray either their own debts, or it may be the debts of others for which they have become liable; and frequently children are kidnapped and sold away into distant parts. Although but a few years since every heathen town in this region abounded with slave-markets, there is now, doubtless through the influence of Christian civilization, nothing of the kind seen; and although it would be unsafe to say that slaves are not sometimes sold, yet if so, it is done secretly. The first and only marts we met for "this description of property," were at Ilorin, a Mohammedan kingdom. There was there, besides several small numbers exposed in different places throughout the town, a large market, the Gambari, almost exclusively devoted to their sale, and in which there were certainly not less than from five to six hundred. Christian America and Mohammedan Ilorin do with complacency what the heathens of Yoruba and Egba feel it a disgrace to practise.
At Ilorin we sojourned with Nasamo, the king's sheriff, in whose company only we were permitted to walk about the city. On arriving at the Gambari market in one of our excursions, he pointed to the slaves and jocularly asked whether I wished to purchase. I embraced the opportunity to show him the wrong of making slaves of our fellows, and the great injury which it inflicted not only upon those who suffer, but also on those who practise it. Nasamo fills a high position in the state, and is the master of a large number of slaves; nevertheless he is himself a slave, and doubtless thought of his youthful home and dear parents from whom he was stolen. He admitted all I said, and observed that he wished there was no such thing; but while it existed it was better that they be exposed in the markets than that they should be sold privately, "for then bad men would seize the defenseless and our children, and we would not know where to find them."
The Mohammedans do not sell their co-religionists into slavery: they sometimes hold them as slaves, but only when they were bought as heathens and con-verted after coming into their possession; but these are never after sold. Here is a vast difference from that class of Christians, so called, who buy and sell the members of their own church, the partakers of the same communion with themselves. How much better are such than the heathens, or even these benighted Mussulmans?
Although, as I have before shown, slavery in Africa is not like slavery in America, or even as it is in Cuba, yet it is still a fact which must not be disregarded, that, more or less, it is slavery—such, it is true, as the teachings and example of good men might quietly but certainly in time overthrow, but which might also by an obverse course assume most of the abhorrent phases of the American institution. My own opposition to slavery does not arise simply from the suffering and ill-treatment which the bondman endures, for in that case I would have to acquit perhaps the majority of American masters. I oppose it because a human being is by it reduced to the condition of a thing, a mere chattel, to be bought or sold at the option of his fellow-man, whose only right to do so is the accidental circumstance of superior power—a power which the good should use to protect rather than oppress the weak. I oppose it because I feel the common instinct that man has an inalienable right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Hence I do not regard a slave-owner, even when he makes his slave as comfortable and happy as a slave can be—in all other respects, it may be, as well off as himself—I do not, I say, regard such a person as therefore less guilty: indeed, if there is one class of them whom I detest more heartily than another, it is that class whose course is to render the slave, if possible, contented with his condition.
From this view, therefore, I place my opposition to African slavery on the same ground as to American slavery, and God helping me, shall labor as earnestly for the overthrow of one as for the other[5] Rev. Mr. Townsend has a small fund at his disposal for assisting slaves to redeem themselves. He has helped by this means several to obtain liberty. The money is usually paid for them without any other condition than a promise to repay it when able to do so. I was told of one instance where a party so helped had not been heard of for two or three years: when he was almost forgotten, he one day appeared and refunded gratefully the whole amount, pleading bad health for not doing so before.
One of the most marked characteristics of the Africans, not only in this section, but all along the Western coast, is the grace and symmetry of their forms, so well yet so unostentatiously displayed by their ordinary costume. Nor can there be any wonder on this account, considering their freedom from all those habits of civilized life so contrary to nature, and which tend so much to the physical deformity that so often offends good taste. One never passes a group of boys at play without witnessing some of the most dexterous performances of tumbling, wrestling and other exercises tending to the development of the muscular powers of the system. In their dances too they exhibit evolutions, throwing at once every muscle into action, which, would almost be regarded as impossible except witnessed.
In the towns further interior than Abbeokuta, in which the use of fire-arms has not yet become general, one frequently sees groups of boys contesting in feats of archery, with great skill. In Oyo bets are only permitted in these exercises. There are several fine games of skill practised by the Akus. A favorite one is the "wari." The apparatus consists of twelve cups arranged in two rows, hewn out of a single block of wood. Four bean-like seeds are placed in each cup, and the game is begun by each party alternately taking the contents of one cup of the row next himself and distributing them, one by one, beginning at the cup next to that from which he took them. When one party can throw the last three or four of his beans into the cups of his antagonist, containing not more than one or two beans each, he seizes the contents as his prize, and thus they continue until the beans are all taken, when each counts what he possesses, the victory being of course accorded to him who has most. There is perhaps not a house in which one or more of these apparatus is not kept, for the entertainment of the inmates. They are found too, at all the "beer-shops," if the reader will permit the application of that term to the places at which the native oti, or corn-beer, is sold. I never made a more acceptable pre-sent to any one, than of four dozen pretty glass balls, or glass marbles, if you please, to the Alake of Abbeokuta, to use in his game of wari. Another game, in which they are frequently seen engaging with much interest, is the dili, a kind of tee-ta-too, more complicated, however, and certainly more interesting than that memorable game of our school days. A large square, divided into thirty-six smaller squares, is traced on the ground, on the opposite sides of which the contestants sit. Each is prepared with twelve "men" differently colored. The parties put down one piece alternately, until all are disposed of, when the game is continued by each moving his men from place to place, until he can arrange three of his own on successive squares on a line, which feat entitles him to one of his adversary's men. The effort of each then is, first to procure this arrangement of his own, and next to prevent his adversary from doing likewise. Of course the party capturing most men wins the game. I insert here a stray fact, lest it should be forgotten. In Abbeokuta and throughout the Aku country, old women are seen nursing infants, not their own, as, in many instances they were far beyond the period of life when such a thing is at all possible.
Wild bees are very common in Africa. One day a large swarm alighted near our house. I essayed to take them in a box, and after two or three unsuccessful attempts, abandoned the undertaking, as it seemed utterly impossible to induce them to take up with a civilized abode. Next morning passing near the box, which was thrown carelessly under a tree, I was surprised to find, that they had quite changed mind, and were busily laboring in their new domicile. They continued several weeks, when ceasing to hear their busy hum, I examined, and found that they had again departed. They carried off, of course, all the honey, but left plenty of wax, which I prepared and brought with me as a sample of African beeswax. The natives thought me a charmed man, because, forsooth, I was not stung to death in the undertaking.
This section of Africa is sometimes the theatre of terrible thunder-storms. In one of these, my colleague, Dr. Delany, accompanied by Reverend Mr. Reed, missionary at Oyo, was caught one night returning from a visit to a friend, some distance from our dwelling The doctor rode a young horse, unaccustomed to the road; Mr. Reed's could find its way back on any road it had travelled. The rain fell in torrents, and it was dismally, totally, absolutely dark; being out myself that night, I could not see my own hands, and sometimes, waiting for the flashes of lightning to show the path, my servant would stumble over me, unable to discover any object before him. Every one knows the impossibility of keeping, blindfolded, in a given direction, so we continually deviated from the narrow path, and were in imminent danger of falling into one or other of the numerous excavations from which the natives procure clay to construct their walls. A large rock intercepted the path my friends took returning home, over which Mr. Reed's horse, after some urging, passed, but the Doctor's obstinately refused to follow, and Mr. Reed's as obstinately refused to return. At last they concluded to pass round a little to the right of where they stood to rejoin each other, in trying to effect which both lost their way. Mr. Reed got home with but little trouble, but the Doctor spent half the night wandering over the least inhabited portions of the city, wet to the skin, the rain all the time pouring. He had been but a few days at Abbeokuta, and of course knew nothing of the language. Coming to a native compound, he essayed to attract attention by the use of the two or three words, the pronunciation (not the meaning) of which he knew indifferently. With a loud voice, (the Doctor is a second Stentor,) he cried acushe! (a term of salutation to the industrious.) The natives were astonished, and instantly extinguishing their lights, they fled to the recesses of their dwelling, and, although the Doctor exhausted his whole vocabulary in the effort, he could not induce them to stir. After one or two more fruitless attempts at other houses, he at last brought to his aid a few resolute men, who perceiving that he had lost his way, conducted him safe to the dwelling of Mr. Samuel Crowther, Jr., whither I arrived at the same time after a long search to find him.
A funeral in this section of Africa is not unworthy of notice. A brother of the chief Atambala having died during my sojourn at Abbeokuta, I went over to his house to condole with him on his loss. I found the old chief in no condition to receive the sort of condolence I was prepared to offer, as both himself and almost every other person present was intoxicated. His compound[6] was crowded, a large number of his friends being there to participate in the ceremonies. Drums were beating, the women singing, and as many as had sufficient command of their legs were dancing. They permitted me to see the corpse, and to my astonishment I found it wrapped with cloths, in exactly the same manner as are Egyptian mummies. The cloth is usually the best the friends of the deceased can purchase. On this occasion they used one which I had presented the chief a few days before. It was laid in an open piazza, the walls around which were draped with velvet and other costly cloths. All this time there was moving through the city a procession, made up of drummers, men bearing a board covered with cloths to represent the corpse, women singing alternately songs of lamentation and of praises to the dead, with other men firing guns, and all dancing and otherwise enacting the most extravagant gestures.
The deceased is always buried in the house in which he lived. Sometimes a stone is placed on the spot, on which offerings to his manes are occasionally deposited. In some cases, where the party was greatly respected, on account of his position on earth, he becomes after death the subject of religious adoration.
The Africans are not behind either the English or Americans in their love of pageantry. The writer does not remember a day spent at Abbeokuta without having witnessed something of this sort. The most frequent were processions of societies for mutual saving. They are formed chiefly of women. Once a week each member deposits a certain amount, the aggregate of which is drawn by one member, who of course continues her deposits, and does not draw again, until all in turn have done likewise. There is no disadvantage in drawing last, as those who do so, receive a consideration for the use of their weekly deposits by the other members.
Before 1839 little if any thing was known of Abbeokuta. The Yorubas and Egbas recaptured and taken to Sierra Leone were sold away before any such place existed, and no travellers had before been in the neighborhood, but at this time, vague rumors began to spread along the coast that the different tribes of the Egbas had united themselves, and had built a new city, powerful from its natural defenses not less than for the brave hearts and strong arms of its people. These were joyful tidings indeed to the Egbas at Sierra Leone, in the bosom of most of whom was immediately kindled the strongest desire, again to be united to their long-lost relatives and friends. Conquering a thousand difficulties, they eventually carried out the object of their desire, and in the short time between 1839 and 1842 we are told by Miss Tucker[7] in her admirable little book that no less than 500 of them left Sierra Leone for their country.
Simultaneously with these occurrences, the people of the Brazils and of Cuba, Egbas, Torubas, and other Aku tribes who had obtained freedom, began to return. From all sources there are now scattered throughout the country, but chiefly at Lagos and Abbeokuta, over five thousand of these people, semi-civilized generally, but in some instances highly cultivated, being engaged as teachers, catechists, clergymen, and merchants. Industrious, enterprising, and carrying with them, one here and another there, a knowledge of some of the useful arts, they have doubtless been the means of inaugurating a mighty work, which, now that it has accomplished its utmost, must be continued in a higher form by the more civilized of the same race, who for a thousand reasons, are best adapted to its successful prosecution.
The hand of God is in the work, and although many discouragements and impediments might intercept the path of you who would labor for such an end, there is nothing to fear. Persevere, persevere, and the Power, which has already been a safeguard through so many dangers will aid your efforts to the end.
- ↑ Abelmoschus (Hibiscus) Esculentus.
- ↑ See Crowther's Vocabulary of the Yoruba language.
- ↑ One vowel dropped for euphony.
- ↑ Including the surviving wives of his father, who as already mentioned, are all nominally his, he is said to have about one thousand.
- ↑ The following distinctions or grades of servitude prevail: one absolutely free through all generations is termed, "Omo olu wabi." The issue of the child of slave parents, marrying an "Omo olu wabi" is deemed "eru idili," or a slave connected with the family. An absolute slave is called "eru." One in pawn, placed in that condition by another, is termed "wafa:" one voluntarily placing himself in pawn is "Faru so fa." A favorite slave, "eru," at the death of his master is seldom if ever considered any longer an eru, but becomes "eru idili," and generally marries in the family, in which case his children, if by free mothers, become absolutely free.
- ↑ Walled inclosures in Africa, comprising several dwellings, are called by the civilized people "compounds."
- ↑ "Abbeokuta, or Sunrise within the Tropics." Although Miss Tucker has never been to Africa herself, yet her statements are perfectly reliable, as they come from the best sources.