DAHOME--_Concluded_.
THE GRAND CUSTOMS OF DAHOME -- CELEBRATED ONCE IN A LIFETIME -- “WE
ARE HUNGRY” -- THE BASKET SACRIFICE -- GELELE’S TOWER -- THE FIRE
TELEGRAPH AND ITS DETAILS -- LAST DAY OF THE CUSTOMS -- THE TIRED
ORATORS -- A GENERAL SMASH -- CONCLUSION OF THE CEREMONY -- DAHOMAN
MARRIAGES -- THE RELIGION OF DAHOME -- POLYTHEISM, AND DIFFERENT
RANKS OF THE DEITIES -- WORSHIP OF THE THUNDER GOD -- CEREMONY OF
HEAD WORSHIP -- THE PRIESTS OR FETISHERS -- THE FEMALE FETISHERS --
IDEAS OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD -- INQUEST AFTER DEATH -- BURIAL -- THE
DEATH OF A KING -- THE WATER SPRINKLING CUSTOM -- CAPTAIN BURTON’S
SUMMARY OF THE DAHOMAN CHARACTER.
We now pass to the Grand Customs of Dahome, which only take place once
in a monarch’s lifetime. This fearful ceremony, or rather series of
ceremonies, is performed in honor of a deceased king, and the duty of
carrying it out devolves upon his successor. Each king tries to outvie
his predecessor by sacrificing a greater number of victims, or by
inventing some new mode of performing the sacrifice. In consequence of
this habit the mode of conducting the Grand Custom is so exceedingly
variable that a full description would entail a narration of the Custom
as performed by each successive king.
It has already been stated that the victims are carefully saved for the
purpose, Custom Day being the only general execution time in the year;
and in consequence, if a new king finds that he has not a sufficient
number of victims to do honor to his father’s memory, and at least to
equal those whom his father sacrificed when he came to the throne, he
must wait until the required number can be made up.
The usual method of doing so is to go to war with some tribe with
whom there is a feud; and for this reason, among others, both Gezo
and Gelele made a series of attacks, Abeokuta winning at first, but
being afterward beaten back, as has been narrated. It is chiefly for
this reason that the Amazons are taught to rush so fiercely over the
formidable thorn walls by which the towns are fortified, and the
prisoners whom they take are mostly handed over to the king to be kept
in readiness for the next custom.
On the great day of the Grand Custom the king appears on a platform,
decorated, according to Dahoman ideas, in a most gorgeous manner, with
cloths on which are rudely painted the figures of various animals.
Around him are his favorite wives and his principal officers, each
of the latter being distinguished by his great umbrella. Below is a
vast and surging crowd of negroes of both sexes, wild with excitement
and rum, and rending the air with their yells of welcome to their
sovereign. In recognition of their loyalty, he flings among them
“heads” of cowries, strings of beads, rolls of cloth, and similar
valuables, for which they fight and scramble and tear each other like
so many wild beasts--and indeed, for the time, they are as fierce and
as ruthless as the most savage beasts that the earth holds.
After these specimens of the royal favor are distributed, the cries
and yells begin to take shape, and gradually resolve themselves into
praises of the king and appeals to his bounty. “We are hungry, O King,”
they cry. “Feed us, O King, for we are hungry!” and this ominous demand
is repeated with increasing fury, until the vast crowd have lashed
themselves to a pitch of savage fury, which nothing but blood can
appease. And blood they have in plenty. The victims are now brought
forward, each being gagged in order to prevent him from crying out to
the king for mercy, in which case he must be immediately released, and
they are firmly secured by being lashed inside baskets, so that they
can move neither head, hand, nor foot. At the sight of the victims the
yells of the crowd below redouble, and the air is rent with the cry,
“We are hungry! Feed us, O King.”
Presently the deafening yells are hushed into a death-like silence, as
the king rises, and with his own hand or foot pushes one of the victims
off the platform into the midst of the crowd below. The helpless wretch
falls into the outstretched arms of the eager crowd, the basket is rent
to atoms by a hundred hands; and in a shorter time than it has taken to
write this sentence the man has been torn limb from limb, while around
each portion of the still quivering body a mass of infuriated negroes
are fighting like so many starved dogs over a bone.
Gelele, following the habits of his ancestors, introduced an
improvement on this practice, and, instead of merely pushing the
victims off the platform, built a circular tower some thirty feet in
height, decorated after the same grotesque manner as the platform, and
ordered that the victims should be flung from the top of this tower.
Should the kingdom of Dahome last long enough for Gelele to have a
successor, some new variation will probably be introduced into the
Grand Customs.
After Gelele had finished his gift throwing, a strange procession wound
its way to the tower--the procession of blood. First came a number of
men, each carrying a pole, to the end of which was tied a living cock;
and after them marched another string of men, each bearing on his head
a living goat tied up in a flexible basket, so that the poor animals
could not move a limb. Next came a bull, borne by a number of negroes;
and lastly came the human victims, each tied in a basket, and carried,
like the goats, horizontally on a man’s head.
Three men now mounted to the top of the tower, and received the victims
in succession, as they were handed up to them. Just below the tower
an open space was left, in which was a block of wood, on the edge of
a hole, attended by the executioners. The fowls were first flung from
the top of the tower, still attached to the poles; and it seemed to be
requisite that every creature which was then sacrificed should be tied
in some extraordinary manner. As soon as they touched the ground, they
were seized, dragged to the block, and their heads chopped off, so that
the blood might be poured into the hole. The goats were thrown down
after the fowls, the bull after the goats, and, lastly, the unfortunate
men shared the same fate. The mingled blood of these victims was
allowed to remain in the hole, which was left uncovered all night, the
blood-stained block standing beside it.
The illustration on the following page depicts the last feature of this
terrible scene. On the right hand is the king, seated under his royal
umbrella, surmounted with a leopard, the emblem of royalty, and around
him are his wives and great men. In the centre rises the cloth-covered
tower, from which a human victim has just been hurled, while another is
being carried to his fate. Below is one of the executioners standing
by the block, and clustering in front of the tower is the mob of
infuriated savages.
Just below the king is seen the band, the most prominent instrument
of which is the great drum carried on a man’s head, and beaten by
the drummer who stands behind him, and one of the king’s banners is
displayed behind the band, and guarded by a body of armed Amazons.
In front are several of the fetishmen, their heads adorned with the
conical cap, their bodies fantastically painted, and the inevitable
skull in their hands. The house which is supposed to contain the spirit
of the deceased king is seen on the left.
The last day of the Customs is celebrated after a rather peculiar
manner.
A line of soldiers armed with guns is stationed all the way from Agbome
to Whydah. These soldiers are placed at some little distance from each
other, and their duty is to transmit a rolling fire all the way from
the capital to the port and back again. This is a later invention,
the former plan being to transmit a small present from hand to hand,
starting from Whydah and having its destination in the palace. Another
line of musketeers extended from the Komasi house to a suburb about a
mile distant.
The method of arranging them is very curious. At intervals of three
hundred yards or so are built little huts of grass, each being the
lodging-place of two soldiers. Though slightly built, there is some
attempt at ornament about them, as each hut has a pent roof, a veranda
supported by light poles, and the side walls decorated with a diamond
pattern of bamboo and a fetish shrub, which is supposed to repel
lightning. A tuft of grass ornaments each end of the gables, and those
huts that are situated nearest the palace are always the most decorated.
In front of each hut the muskets belonging to the soldiers are fixed
horizontally on forked sticks. They are ready loaded, and the two are
employed lest one of them should miss fire. There are nearly nine
hundred of these huts upon the line to Whydah, and it is calculated
that the time occupied in the fire ought to be about half an hour.
[Illustration: THE BASKET SACRIFICE. (See page 582.)]
When Captain Burton attended this ceremony in 1863, Gelele had not been
confirmed at Allada, and in consequence was not, by royal etiquette,
allowed to live in a house built of anything better than stakes and
matting. Consequently, his officers were obliged to follow his example,
as it would have been equivalent to treason had a subject presumed to
live in a “swish” house when his monarch only dwelt in matting.
However, on this occasion at all events the king tried to atone by
barbarous finery for the wretched material of his “palace.” The Agwajai
gate led into an oblong court of matting, sprinkled with thick-leaved
little fig trees of vivid green, and divided into two by the usual line
of bamboos. At the bottom of the southern half was the royal pavilion,
somewhat like a Shakmiyana in Bengal, with an open wing on each side.
“The sloping roof of the central part, intended for the king, was of
gold and lake damask, under two broad strips of red and green satin;
the wings, all silk and velvet, were horizontally banded with red,
white-edged green, purple and yellow, red and green in succession, from
the top, and, where the tongue-shaped lappets started, with chrome
yellow. The hangings, playing loosely in the wind, were remarkable
chiefly for grotesque figures of men and beasts cut out of colored
cloth and sewed to the lining.”
Several little tables were placed near the inner entrances, each being
sheltered by a huge umbrella, three decorated with figures and four
white. These were for the women, who were dressed in their gayest
apparel, magnificent in mantles of red, pink, and flowered silks
and satins. Opposite to the king were five ragged white umbrellas,
sheltering eleven small tables, and behind the tables was a small crowd
of officials and captains, dressed in costumes somewhat similar to
those of the women.
On the right of the throne was the court fool, a very important
man indeed, his eyes surrounded with rings of white chalk, and
his shoulders covered with an old red velvet mantle. Although not
of sufficient rank to be permitted the use of an umbrella, he was
sheltered from the sun by a piece of matting raised on poles. A model
of a canoe was placed near him.
Just at the entrances eight muskets were tied horizontally, each
supported on two forked sticks, as has already been described, and
behind each musket stood the Amazon to whom it belonged.
After making his guests wait for at least two hours,--such a delay
being agreeable to royal etiquette,--the king condescended to appear.
This time he had arrayed himself after a very gorgeous and rather
heterogeneous fashion. He wore a yellow silk tunic, covered with little
scarlet flowers, a great black felt Spanish hat, or sombrero, richly
embroidered with gold braid, and a broad belt of gold and pearls
(probably imitation) passed over his left shoulder to his right side.
Suspended to his neck was a large crucifix, and in his left hand he
carried an hour-glass. An old rickety table with metal legs, and
covered with red velvet, was placed before him, and upon it were laid a
silver mug, a rosary, sundry pieces of plate, and some silver armlets.
On taking his seat, he put the silver mug to its proper use, by
drinking with all his guests, his own face being, according to custom,
hidden by a linen cloth while he drank.
After the usual complimentary addresses had been made, a woman rose at
1 P. M. and gave the word of command--“A-de-o.” This is a corruption
of Adios, or farewell. At this word two of the muskets in front of the
king were discharged, and the firing was taken up by the Jegbe line. In
three minutes the firing ran round Jegbe and returned to the palace. At
2 P. M. another “A-de-o” started the line of firing to Whydah, the time
of its return having been calculated and marked by a rude device of
laying cowries on the ground, and weaving a cloth in a loom, the number
of threads that are laid being supposed to indicate a certain duration
of time.
As soon as the firing began, two officials marched up to the king and
began an oration, which they were bound to maintain until the firing
had returned. Amid the horrible noise of five heralds proclaiming
the royal titles and a jester springing his rattle, they began their
speech, but were sadly discomfited by a wrong calculation or a
mismanagement of the firing. Instead of occupying only half an hour, it
was not finished for an hour and a half, and the poor orators were so
overcome with heat and the fine dust which hovered about, that toward
the end of the time they were nearly choked, and could hardly get out
short sentences, at long intervals, from their parched throats. “There
will be stick for this,” remarks Captain Burton.
Stick, indeed, is administered very freely, and the highest with the
lowest are equally liable to it. On one occasion some of the chief
officers of the court did not make their appearance exactly at the
proper time. The king considered that this conduct was an usurpation
of the royal prerogative of making every one else wait, whereas they
had absolutely made him wait for them. So, as soon as they appeared,
he ordered the Amazons to take their bamboos and beat them out of the
court, a command which they executed with despatch and vigor. The
beaten ministers did not, however, seem to resent their treatment, but
sat cowering at the gate in abject submission.
After occupying several days in this feasting and speech-making and
boasting, the king proceeded to the last act of the Customs. Having
resumed his place at the velvet-covered table, he filled his glass
with rum, and drank with his visitors to the health of his father’s
ghost, who, by the way, had been seen bathing in the sea, and had
received two slaves, sacrificed in order to tell him that his son was
pleased at his visit. After a few unimportant ceremonies, he poured
a little rum on the ground, and, dashing his glass to pieces on the
table, rose and left the tent. His attendants followed his example,
and smashed everything to pieces, even including the tables; this act
probably accounting for the very mean and rickety condition of the
royal furniture. With this general smash the Customs terminated, much
to the relief of the visitors.
Marriages among the Dahomans are an odd compound of simplicity and
complexity. The bridegroom commences his suit by sending a couple of
friends to the father of the intended bride, and furnishes them with a
doubly potent argument in the shape of two bottles of rum. Should the
father approve of the proposition, he graciously drinks the rum, and
sends back the empty bottles--a token that he accepts the proposal,
and as a delicate hint that he would like some more rum. The happy man
takes the hint, fills the bottles, sends them to the father, together
with a present for the young lady; and then nothing more is required
except to name the amount of payment which is demanded for the girl.
Cloth is the chief article of barter, and a man is sometimes occupied
for two or three years in procuring a sufficient quantity.
At last the day--always a Sunday--is settled, and more bottles of
rum are sent by the bridegroom’s messengers, who bring the bride in
triumph to her future home, followed by all her family and friends.
Then comes a general feast, at which it is a point of honor to consume
as much as possible, and it is not until after midnight that the bride
is definitely handed over to her husband. The feast being over, the
bridegroom retires into his house and seats himself. Several fetish
women lead in the bride by her wrists, and present her in solemn form,
telling them both to behave well to each other, but recommending him
to flog her well if she displeases him. Another two or three hours of
drinking then follows, and about 3 or 4 A. M. the fetish women retire,
and the actual marriage is supposed to be completed.
Next morning the husband sends more rum and some heads of cowries to
the girl’s parents as a token that he is satisfied, and after a week
the bride returns to her father’s house, where she remains for a day or
two, cooking, however, her husband’s food and sending it to him. On the
day when she returns home another feast is held, and then she subsides
into the semi-servile state which is the normal condition of a wife
throughout the greater part of savage Africa.
We now come to the religion of Dahome, which, as may be imagined from
the previous narrative, is of a very low character, and has been curtly
summarized by Captain Burton in the following sentence:--“Africans, as
a rule, worship everything except the Creator.” As the contact of the
Dahomans with the white men and with the Moslems has probably engrafted
foreign ideas in the native mind, it is not very easy to find out the
exact nature of their religion, but the following account is a short
abstract of the result of Captain Burton’s investigation.
He states that the reason why the natives do not worship the Creator is
that, although they acknowledge the fact of a supreme Deity, they think
that He is too great and high to trouble Himself about the affairs of
mankind, and in consequence they do not trouble themselves by paying
a worship which they think would be fruitless. Their devotion, such
as it is, expends itself therefore upon a host of minor deities, all
connected with some material object.
First we have the principal deities, who are ranked in distinct
classes. The most important is the Snake god, who has a thousand snake
wives, and is represented by the Danhgbwe, which has already been
mentioned. Next in order come the Tree gods, of which the silk-cotton
(_Bombax_) is the most powerful, and has the same number of wives as
the Danhgbwe. It has, however, a rival in the Ordeal, or poison tree.
The last of these groups is the sea. This deity is represented at
Whydah by a very great priest, who ranks as a king, and has five
hundred wives in virtue of his representative office. At stated times
he visits the shore to pay his respects, and to throw into the waves
his offerings of beads, cowries, cloth, and other valuables. Now and
then the king sends a human sacrifice from the capital. He creates
the victim a Caboceer, gives him the state uniform and umbrella of
his short-lived rank, puts him in a gorgeous hammock, and sends him
in great pomp and state to Whydah. As soon as he arrives there, the
priest takes him out of his hammock and transfers him to a canoe, takes
him out to sea, and flings him into the water, where he is instantly
devoured by the expectant sharks.
Lately a fourth group of superior deities has been added, under the
name of the Thunder gods. In connection with the worship of this deity
is found the only approach to cannibalism which is known to exist in
Dahome. When a man has been killed by lightning, burial is not lawful,
and the body is therefore laid on a platform and cut up by the women,
who hold the pieces of flesh in their mouths, and pretend to eat them,
calling out to the passengers, “We sell you meat, fine meat; come and
buy!”
After these groups of superior deities come a host of inferior gods,
too numerous to mention. One, however, is too curious to be omitted.
It is a man’s own head, which is considered a very powerful fetish
in Dahome. An engraving on the 595th page illustrates this strange
worship, which is as follows:--
“The head worshipper, after providing a fowl, kola nuts, rum, and
water, bathes, dresses in pure white baft, and seats himself on a clean
mat. An old woman, with her _medius_ finger dipped in water, touches
successively his forehead, poll, nape, and mid-breast, sometimes
all his joints. She then breaks a kola into its natural divisions,
throws them down like dice, chooses a lucky piece, which she causes
a bystander to chew, and with his saliva retouches the parts before
alluded to.
“The fowl is then killed by pulling its body, the neck being held
between the big and first toe; the same _attouchements_ are performed
with its head, and finally with the boiled and shredded flesh before it
is eaten. Meanwhile rum and water are drunk by those present.”
The fetishers, or priests, are chosen by reason of a sort of ecstatic
fit which comes upon them, and which causes them at last to fall to the
ground insensible. One of the older priests awaits the return of the
senses, and then tells the neophyte what particular fetish has come to
him. He is then taken away to the college, or fetish part of the town,
where he learns the mysteries of his calling, and is instructed for
several years in the esoteric language of the priests, a language which
none but themselves can understand. If at the end of the novitiate he
should return to his former home, he speaks nothing but this sacred
language, and makes it a point of honor never to utter a sentence that
any member of the household can understand.
When a man is once admitted into the ranks of the fetishes, his
subsistence is provided for, whether he be one of the “regulars,” who
have no other calling, and who live entirely upon the presents which
they obtain from those who consult them, or whether he retains some
secular trade, and only acts the fetisher when the fit happens to come
on him. They distinguish themselves by various modes of dress, such as
shaving half the beard, carrying a cow-tail flapper, or wearing the
favorite mark of a fetisher, namely, a belt of cowries strung back to
back, each pair being separated by a single black seed.
The fetish women greatly outnumber the men, nearly one-fourth belonging
to this order. They are often destined to this career before their
birth, and are married to the fetish before they see the light of day.
They also take human spouses, but, from all accounts, the life of the
husband is not the most agreeable in the world. The women spend their
mornings in going about begging for cowries. In the afternoon she goes
with her sisters into the fetish house, and puts on her official dress.
The whole party then sally out to the squares, where they drum and sing
and dance and lash themselves into fits of raving ecstasy. This lasts
for a few hours, when the women assume their ordinary costumes and go
home.
It is illegal for any fetisher to be assaulted while the fetish is
on them, and so the women always manage to shield themselves from
their husband’s wrath by a fetish fit whenever he becomes angry, and
threatens the stick.
As to the position of the human soul in the next world, they believe
that a man takes among the spirits the same rank which he held among
men; so that a man who dies as a king is a king to all eternity, while
he who is a slave when he dies can never be a free man, but must be the
property of some wealthy ghost or other.
Visiting the world of spirits is one of the chief employments of the
fetish men, who are always ready to make the journey when paid for
their trouble. They are often called upon to do so, for a Dahoman
who feels unwell or out of spirits always fancies that his deceased
relatives are calling for him to join them, a request which he feels
most unwilling to grant. So he goes to his favorite fetisher, and
gives him a dollar to descend into the spirit world and present his
excuses to his friends. The fetisher covers himself with his cloth,
lies down, and falls into a trance, and, when he recovers, he gives
a detailed account of the conversation which has taken place between
himself and the friends of his client. Sometimes he brings back a rare
bead or some other object, as proof that he has really delivered the
message and received the answer. The whole proceeding is strangely like
the ceremonies performed by the medicine men or Angekoks among the
Esquimaux.
It is a strange thing that, in a country where human life is sacrificed
so freely, a sort of inquest takes place after every death. The reason
for this custom is rather curious. The king reserves to himself the
right of life and death over his subjects, and any one who kills
another is supposed to have usurped the royal privilege.
As soon as death takes place, notice is sent to the proper officers,
called Gevi, who come and inspect the body, receiving as a fee a head
and a half of cowries. When they have certified that the death was
natural, the relatives begin their mourning, during which they may not
eat nor wash, but may sing as much as they please, and drink as much
rum as they can get. A coffin is prepared, its size varying according
to the rank of the deceased person; the corpse is clothed in its best
attire, decorated with ornaments, and a change of raiment is laid in
the coffin, to be worn when the deceased fairly reaches the land of
spirits. The very poor are unable to obtain a coffin, and a wrapper of
matting is deemed sufficient in such cases.
The grave is dug in rather a peculiar manner, a cavern being excavated
on one side, the coffin being first lowered and then pushed sideways
into the cave, so that the earth immediately above is undisturbed.
After the grave is filled in, the earth is smoothed with water. Over
the grave of a man in good circumstances is placed a vessel-shaped
iron, into which is poured water or blood by way of drink for the
deceased. Formerly a rich man used to have slaves buried with him, but
of late years only the two chiefs of the king are allowed to sacrifice
one slave at death, they being supposed not to need as many attendants
in the next world as if they had been kings of Dahome in this.
As soon as the king dies, his wives and all the women of the palace
begin to smash everything that comes in their way, exactly as has
been related of the concluding scene of the Customs; and, when they
have broken all the furniture of the palace, they begin to turn their
destructive fury upon each other, so that at the death of Agagoro it
was calculated that several hundred women lost their lives within the
palace walls merely in this fight, those sacrificed at the succeeding
Customs being additional victims. This bloodthirsty rage soon extends
beyond the precincts of the palace, and Captain Burton, who has done so
much in contradicting the exaggerated tales of Dahoman bloodshed that
have been so widely circulated, acknowledges that, however well a white
stranger may be received at Agbome, his life would be in very great
danger were he to remain in the capital when the king died.
Even with the termination of the Customs the scenes of blood do not
end. Next comes the “water-sprinkling,” _i. e._ the graves of the kings
must be sprinkled with “water,” the Dahoman euphemism for blood. Of
late years the number of human victims sacrificed at each grave has
been reduced to two, the requisite amount of “water” being supplied by
various animals.
Before each tomb the king kneels on all fours, accompanied by his
chiefs and captains, while a female priest, who must be of royal
descent, makes a long oration to the spirit of the deceased ruler,
asking him to aid his descendant and to give success and prosperity
to his kingdom. Libations of rum and pure water are then poured upon
each grave, followed by the sacrificial “water,” which flows from the
throats of the men, oxen, goats, pigeons, and other victims. Kola nuts
and other kinds of food are also brought as offerings.
The flesh of the animals is then cooked, together with the vegetables,
and a feast is held, the stool of the deceased ruler being placed on
the table as an emblem of his presence. All the Dahoman kings are
buried within the walls of the palace, a house being erected over each
grave. During the water sprinkling, or “Sin-quain,” custom, the king
goes to each house separately, and sleeps in it for five or six nights,
so as to put himself in communion with the spirits of his predecessors.
The reader will remember that the kings who formerly ruled Dahome
are still supposed to hold royal rank in the spirit world, and the
prevalence of the custom shows that this belief in the dead is strong
enough to exercise a powerful influence over the living.
We have now very briefly glanced at the Dahoman in peace, in war,
in religion, in death, and in burial. He is not a pleasant subject,
and, though the space which has been given to him is much too small
to afford more than outline of his history, it would have been more
restricted but for the fact that the Dahoman is an excellent type
of the true negro of Western Africa, and that a somewhat detailed
description of him will enable us to dismiss many other negro tribes
with but a passing notice.
Moreover, as the kingdom of Dahome is fast failing, and all the strange
manners and customs which have been mentioned will soon be only matters
of history, it was necessary to allot rather more space to them than
would otherwise have been the case. The general character of the
Dahoman has been so tersely summed up by Captain Burton, that our
history of Dahome cannot have a better termination than the words of so
competent an authority.
“The modern Dahomans are a mongrel breed and a bad. They are Cretan
liars, _crétins_ at learning, cowardly, and therefore cruel and
bloodthirsty; gamblers, and consequently cheaters; brutal, noisy,
boisterous, unvenerative, and disobedient; ‘dipsas-bitten’ things, who
deem it duty to the gods to be drunk; a flatulent, self-conceited herd
of barbarians, who endeavor to humiliate all those with whom they deal;
in fact, a slave-race,--vermin with a soul apiece.
“They pride themselves in not being, like the Popos, addicted to the
‘dark and dirty crime of poison,’ the fact being that they have been
enabled hitherto to carry everything with a high and violent hand.
They are dark in skin, the browns being of xanthous temperament,
middle-sized, slight, and very lightly made. My Krumen looked like
Englishmen among them. In all wrestling bouts my Krumen threw the
hammock bearers on their heads, and on one occasion, during a kind of
party fight, six of them, with fists and sticks, held their own against
twenty Dahomans.
“They are agile, good walkers, and hard dancers, but carry little
weight. Their dress is a godo, or T bandage, a nun-pwe (undercloth)
or a Tfon chokoto (pair of short drawers), and an owu-chyon, or
body-cloth, twelve feet long by four to six broad, worn like the Roman
toga, from which it may possibly be derived.
“The women are of the Hastini, or elephant order, dark, plain,
masculine, and comparatively speaking of large, strong, and square
build. They are the reapers as well as the sowers of the field, and can
claim the merit of laboriousness, if of no other quality.
“They tattoo the skin, especially the stomach, with alto-relievo
patterns; their dress is a zone of beads, supporting a bandage beneath
the do-oo, or scanty loin cloth, which suffices for the poor and young
girls. The upper classes add an aga-oo, or overcloth, two fathoms long,
passed under the arms, and covering all from the bosom to the ankles.
Neither sex wear either shirt, shoes, or stockings.”