THE EGBAS.
THE EGBA TRIBE -- A BLACK BISHOP -- GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THE EGBAS
-- THEIR TRIBAL MARK -- TATTOO OF THE BREECHEE OR GENTLEMEN --
SIGNIFICATION OF ORNAMENTS -- MODE OF SALUTATION -- EGBA ARCHITECTURE
-- SUBDIVISION OF LABOR -- ABEOKUTA AND ITS FORTIFICATIONS -- FEUD
BETWEEN THE EGBAS AND DAHOMANS -- VARIOUS SKIRMISHES AND BATTLES,
AND THEIR RESULTS -- THE GRAND ATTACK ON ABEOKUTA -- REPULSE OF THE
DAHOMAN ARMY -- RELIGION OF THE EGBAS -- THE SYSTEM OF OGBONI --
MISCELLANEOUS SUPERSTITIONS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DEITIES -- EGUGUN AND
HIS SOCIAL DUTIES -- THE ALAKÉ, OR KING OF THE EGBAS -- A RECEPTION
AT COURT -- APPEARANCE OF THE ATTENDANTS.
We are naturally led from Dahome to its powerful and now victorious
enemy, the EGBA tribe, which has perhaps earned the right to be
considered as a nation, and which certainly has as much right to that
title as Dahome.
The Egbas have a peculiar claim on our notice. Some years ago an Egba
boy named Ajai (_i. e._ “struggling for life”) embraced Christianity,
and, after many years of trial, was ordained deacon and priest in the
Church of England. Owing to his constitution he was enabled to work
where a white man would have been prostrated by disease; and, owing
to his origin, he was enabled to understand the peculiar temperament
of his fellow negroes better than any white man could hope to do. His
influence gradually extended, and he was held in the highest esteem
throughout the whole of Western Africa. His widely felt influence
was at last so thoroughly recognized, that he was consecrated to the
episcopal office, and now the negro boy Ajai is known as the Right Rev.
Samuel Crowther, D. D., Lord Bishop of the Niger.
As far as their persons go, the Egbas are a fine race of men, varying
much in color according to the particular locality which they inhabit.
The skin, for example, of the Egba-do, or lower Egba, is of a coppery
black, and that of the chiefs is, as a rule, fairer than that of the
common people. Even the hair of the chiefs is lighter than that of the
common folk, and sometimes assumes a decidedly sandy hue.
The men, while in the prime of life, are remarkable for the extreme
beauty of their forms and the extreme ugliness of their features; and,
as is mostly the case in uncivilized Africa, the woman is in symmetry
of form far inferior to the man, and where one well-developed female is
seen, twenty can be found of the opposite sex.
Whatever may be the exact color of the Egba’s skin, it exhales that
peculiar and indescribable odor which is so characteristic of the
negro races; and, although the slight clothing, the open-air life, and
the use of a rude palm-oil soap prevent that odor from attaining its
full power, it is still perceptible. The lips are of course large and
sausage-shaped, the lower part of the face protrudes, and the chin
recedes to an almost incredible extent, so as nearly to deprive the
countenance of its human character. The hair is short, crisp, and often
grows in the little peppercorn tufts that have been already mentioned
in connection with the Bosjesman race of Southern Africa. The men
dress this scanty crop of hair in a thousand different ways, shaving
it into patterns, and thus producing an effect which, to the eye of an
European, is irresistibly ludicrous. The women contrive to tease it out
to its full length, and to divide it into ridges running over the crown
from the forehead to the nape of the neck, preserving a clean parting
between each ridge, and so making the head look as if it were covered
with the half of a black melon. The skin of the common people is hard
and coarse,--so coarse indeed that Captain Burton compares it to
shagreen, and says that the hand of a slave looks very like the foot of
a fowl.
As to the dress of the Egbas, when uncontaminated by
pseudo-civilization, it is as easily described as procured. A poor man
has nothing but a piece of cloth round his waist, while a man in rather
better circumstances adds a pair of short linen drawers or trousers,
called “shogo,” and a wealthy man wears both the loin cloth and the
drawers, and adds to them a large cloth wrapped gracefully round the
waist, and another draped over the shoulders like a Scotch plaid. The
cloths are dyed by the makers, blue being the usual color, and the
patterns being mostly stripes of lesser or greater width.
Women have generally a short and scanty petticoat, above which is a
large cloth that extends from the waist downward, and a third which
is wrapped shawl-wise over the shoulders. The men and women who care
much about dress dye their hands and feet with red wood. Formerly, this
warlike race used to arm themselves with bows and arrows, which have
now been almost wholly superseded by the “trade gun.” Even now every
man carries in his hand the universal club or knob-kerrie, which, among
the Egbas, has been modified into a simple hooked stick bound with iron
wire in order to increase the strength and weight, and studded with
heavy nails along the convex side. Weapons of a similar nature are used
at Dahome for clubbing criminals to death.
According to savage ideas of beauty, these people tattoo themselves
profusely, covering their bodies with marks which must at some time
have been produced by very painful operations, and which, from their
diversity, serve to perplex observers who have not had time to examine
them minutely, and to classify their wearer.
According to Captain Burton, “the skin-patterns were of every variety,
from the diminutive prick to the great gash and the large boil-like
lumps. They affected various figures--tortoises, alligators, and
the favorite lizard; stars, concentric circles, lozenges, right
lines, welts, gouts of gore, marble or button-like knobs of flesh,
and elevated scars, resembling scalds, which are opened for the
introduction of fetish medicines, and to expel evil influences.
“In this country every tribe, sub-tribe, and even family, has its
blazon, whose infinite diversifications may be compared with the lines
and ordinaries of European heraldry. A volume would not suffice to
explain all the marks in detail. Ogubonna’s family, for instance, have
three small squares of blue tattoo on each cheek, combined with the
three Egba cuts.
“The chief are as follows:--The distinguishing mark of the Egbas is a
gridiron of three cuts, or a multiplication of three, on each cheek.
Free-born women have one, two, or three raised lines, thread-like
scars, from the wrist up the back of the arm, and down the dorsal
region, like long necklaces. They call these ‘Entice my husband.’
“The Yorubas draw perpendicular marks from the temples to the level of
the chin, with slight lateral incisions, hardly perceptible, because
allowed soon to heal. The Efons of Kakanda wear a blue patch, sometimes
highly developed, from the cheek-bones to the ear. The Takpas of Nupè
make one long cut from the upper part of the nostril, sweeping toward
the ear. At Ijasha, a country lying east of Yoruba proper, the tattoo
is a long parallelogram of seven perpendicular and five transverse
lines.”
The most curious tattoo is that of the Breechee (_i. e._ gentleman),
or eldest son and heir. He is not allowed to perform any menial
office, and inherits at his father’s death all the slaves, wives, and
children. Before the Breechee attains full age, a slit is made across
his forehead, and the skin is drawn down and laid across the brow, so
as to form a ridge of hard, knotty flesh from one temple to the other.
The severity of the operation is so great that even the negro often
dies from its effects; but when he survives he is greatly admired, the
unsightly ridge being looked upon as a proof of his future wealth and
his actual strength of constitution.
So minutely does the African mind descend to detail, that even the
ornaments which are worn have some signification well understood by
those who use them. Rings of metal are worn on the legs, ankles, arms,
wrists, fingers, and toes; and round the neck and on the body are
hung strings of beads and other ornaments. Each of these ornaments
signifies the particular deity whom the wearer thinks fit to worship;
and although the number of these deities is very great, the invention
of the negro has been found equal to representing them by the various
ornaments which he wears.
The same minuteness is found in the ordinary affairs of life; and, even
in the regular mode of uttering a salutation, the natives have invented
a vast number of minutiæ. For example, it would be the depth of bad
manners to salute a man when sitting as if he were standing, or the
latter as if he were walking, or a third as if he were returning from
walking. Should he be at work, another form of address is needed, and
another if he should be tired. No less than fifteen forms of personal
salutation are mentioned by Captain Burton, so that the reader may
easily imagine how troublesome the language is to a stranger.
Then the forms of salutation differ as much as the words. If an
inferior meet a superior, a son meet his mother, a younger brother meet
his elder, and so on, an elaborate ceremony is performed. Any burden
that may be carried is placed on the ground, and the bearer proceeds
first to kneel on all fours, then to prostrate himself flat in the
dust, rubbing the earth with the forehead and each cheek alternately.
The next process is to kiss the ground, and this ceremony is followed
by passing each hand down the opposite arm. The dust is again kissed,
and not until then does the saluter resume his feet.
This salutation is only performed once daily to the same person; but
as almost every one knows every one whom he meets, and as one of them
must of necessity be inferior to the other, a vast amount of salutation
has to be got through in the course of a day. Putting together the time
occupied in the various salutations, it is calculated that at least
an hour is consumed by every Egba in rendering or receiving homage.
Sometimes two men meet who are nearly equal, and in such a case both
squat on the ground, and snap their fingers according to the etiquette
of Western Africa.
The architecture of the Egba tribe is mostly confined to “swish” walls
and thatched roofs. A vast number of workers,--or rather idlers--are
engaged on a single house, and the subdivision of labor is carried out
to an extreme extent. Indeed, as Captain Burton quaintly remarks, the
Egbas divide the labor so much that the remainder is imperceptible.
Some of them dig the clay, forming thereby deep pits, which they never
trouble themselves to fill up again, and which become the receptacles
of all sorts of filth and offal. Water, in this wet country, soon
pours into them, and sometimes the corpse of a slave or child is flung
into the nearest pit, to save the trouble of burial. It may easily be
imagined that such pits contribute their part to the fever-breeding
atmosphere of the country.
Another gang is employed in kneading clay and rolling it into
balls; and a third carries it, one ball at a time, to the builders.
Another gang puts the clay balls into the squared shape needful for
architectural purposes; and a fifth hands the shaped clay to the sixth,
who are the actual architects. Yet a seventh gang occupies itself in
preparing palm leaves and thatch; and those who fasten them on the
roof form an eighth gang. Besides these, there is the chief architect,
who by his plumb-line and level rectifies and smooths the walls with a
broad wooden shovel, and sees that they are perfectly upright.
Three successive layers of clay or “swish” are needed, each layer being
allowed to dry for a few days before the next is added. The builders
always manage, if possible, to complete their walls by November, so
that the dry harmattan of December may consolidate the soft clay,
and render it as hard as concrete. This, indeed, is the only reason
why the Egbas approve of the harmattan, its cold, dusty breath being
exceedingly injurious to native constitutions.
One might have thought that this elaborate subdivision of labor would
have the effect of multiplying the working power, as is the case in
Europe. So it would, if the negro worked like the European, but that he
never did, and never will do, unless absolutely compelled by a master
of European extraction. He only subdivides labor in order to spare
himself, and not with the least idea of increasing the amount of work
that he can do in a given time.
The capital of the Egbas and their kindred sub-tribes is called
Abeokuta, a name that has already become somewhat familiar to English
ears on account of the attempts which have been made to introduce
Christianity, civilization, and manufactures among a pagan, savage, and
idle race of negroes. The name of Abeokuta may be literally translated
as Understone, and the title has been given to the place in allusion
to the rock or stone around which it is built. The best description
that has yet been given of Abeokuta is by Captain Burton, from whose
writings the following particulars are gathered.
The city itself is surrounded with concentric lines of fortification,
the outermost being some twenty miles in circumference. These walls are
made of hardened mud, are about five or six feet in height, and have no
embrasures for guns, an omission of very little importance, seeing that
there are scarcely any guns to place in them, and that, if they were
fired, the defenders would be in much greater danger than the attacking
force.
Utterly ignorant of the first principles of fortification, the Egbas
have not troubled themselves to throw out bastions, or to take any
means of securing a flanking fire, and they have made so liberal a
use of matting, poles, and dry leaves within the fortification, that
a carcass or a rocket would set the whole place in a blaze; and, if
the attacking force were to take advantage of the direction of the
wind, they might easily drive out the defenders merely by the smoke
and flames of their own burning houses. Moreover the wall is of such
frail material, and so thinly built, that a single bag of powder hung
against it, and fired, would make a breach that would admit a column of
soldiers together with their field-guns. Around the inner and principal
wall runs a moat some five feet in breadth, partly wet and partly dry,
and of so insignificant a depth that it could be filled up with a few
fascines, or even with a dozen or so of dead bodies.
These defences, ludicrously inefficient as they would be if attacked
by European soldiers, are very formidable obstacles to the Dahoman and
Ibadan, against whose inroads they are chiefly built. As a rule, the
negro has a great horror of attacking a wall, and, as has been proved
by actual conflict, the Dahomans could make no impression whatever upon
these rude fortifications.
The real strength of the city, however, lies in the interior, and
belongs to the rock or “stone” which gives the name to Abeokuta. Within
the walls, the place is broken up into granite eminences, caverns, and
forest clumps, which form natural fortifications, infinitely superior
to those formed by the unskilful hands of the native engineer. Indeed,
the selection of the spot seems to have been the only point in which
the Egbas have exhibited the least appreciation of the art of warfare.
The mode of fighting will presently be described.
The city itself measures some four miles in length by two in breadth,
and is entered by five large gates, at each of which is placed a
warder, who watches those who pass his gate, and exacts a toll from
each passenger. The streets of Abeokuta are narrow, winding, and
intricate, a mode of building which would aid materially in checking
the advance of an enemy who had managed to pass the outer walls. There
are several small market-places here and there, and one of them is
larger than the rest, and called “Shek-pon,” _i. e._ “Do the bachelors
good,” because on every fifth day, when the markets are held, there
is a great concourse of people, and the single men can find plenty of
persons who will fill their pipes, bring them drink, and cook their
food.
“These, then, are my first impressions of Abeokuta. The streets are
as narrow and irregular as those of Lagos, intersecting each other at
every parallel angle, and, when broad and shady, we may be sure that
they have been, or that they will be markets, which are found even
under the eaves of the ‘palace.’ The sun, the vulture, and the pig are
the only scavengers.
“The houses are of tempered mud--the sun-dried brick of Tuta and Nupè,
is here unknown--covered with little flying roofs of thatch, which
burn with exemplary speed. At each angle there is a ‘Kobbi’--a high,
sharp gable of an elevation--to throw off the heavy rain. The form of
the building is the gloomy hollow square, totally unlike the circular
huts of the Krumen and the Kaffirs. It resembles the Utum of the Arabs,
which extending to Usaraga, and Unyavyembe in Central Intertropical
Africa, produces the ‘Tembe,’ and which, through the ‘Patio’ of Spain,
found its way into remote Galway.
“There are courts within courts for the various subdivisions of the
polygamous family, and here also sheep and goats are staked down. The
sexes eat alone; every wife is a ‘free-dealer,’ consequently there is
little more unity than in a nunnery. In each patio there is usually
some central erection intended as a storehouse. Into these central
courts the various doors, about four feet wide, open through a veranda
or piazza, where, chimneys being unknown, the fire is built, and where
the inmates sleep on mats spread under the piazza, or in the rooms, as
the fancy takes them. Cooking also is performed in the open air, as the
coarse earthen pots scattered over the surface prove.
“The rooms, which number from ten to twenty in a house, are windowless,
and purposely kept dark, to keep out the sun’s glare; they vary from
ten to fifteen feet in length, and from seven to eight in breadth.
The furniture is simple--rude cots and settles, earthen pots and
coarse plates, grass bags for cloth and cowries, and almost invariably
weapons, especially an old musket and its leathern case for ammunition.
The number of inhabitants may vary from ten to five hundred, and often
more in the largest. There is generally but one single large outer
door, with charms suspended over it.”
The military strength of Abeokuta has been tested by actual warfare,
and has been found to be quite adequate to repel native troops.
Generally, an African fight consists of a vast amount of noise attended
by a very small amount of slaughter, but in the various attacks of
Dahome on Abeokuta the feelings of both parties appear to have been
so completely excited that the slaughter on both sides was really
considerable.
The fact was, that each party had a long-standing grudge against the
other, and meant to gratify it. Gezo, the father of King Gelele, had
been defeated ignominiously near Abeokuta, and had even lost his stool,
the emblem of sovereignty. Burning to avenge themselves, the Dahomans
made friends with the inhabitants of Ishogga, a small town some fifteen
miles to the southwest of Abeokuta, who advised their guests as to the
particular gate which it was best to attack, the time of day when an
assault would be most likely to succeed, and a ford by which they could
pass the river.
Trusting to these counsellors, they crossed the river at the ford,
which proved to be so bad that they wetted all their ammunition. They
made the attack at mid-day, when they were told that every one would be
asleep or at work in the gardens, which are situated at a considerable
distance from the city. And when they came to the walls of the city
they found the defenders all on the alert, and ready to give them a
warm reception. Lastly, they attacked a gate which had been lately
fortified, whereas another, on the opposite side of the town, was very
weak, and might have been taken easily. Consequently, they had to
return to their own country, vowing vengeance against their treacherous
allies.
After Gezo’s death, Gelele took up the feud, and, after allaying
suspicion by continually proclaiming war against the Egbas, and as
invariably staying at home, in the tenth year he followed up his
threat with a rapid attack upon Ishogga, carried off a great number of
prisoners, and killed those whom he could not conveniently take away.
Flushed by success, he determined to assemble a large force and attack
the capital itself. In March, 1851, some fifteen or sixteen thousand
Dahoman soldiers marched against Abeokuta, and a fierce fight ensued,
the result being that the Dahomans had to retreat, leaving behind
them some two thousand killed, and wounded, and prisoners. As might
be supposed, the Amazons, being the fiercest fighters, suffered most,
while the loss on the Egban side was comparatively trifling. Ten years
afterward, another expedition marched against Abeokuta, but never
reached it, small-pox having broken out in the ranks, and frightened
the soldiers home again.
The last attack was fatal to Dahoman ambition. The Egbas, expecting
their foe, had arranged for their reception, and had driven tunnels
through their walls, so that they could make unexpected sallies on the
enemy. When the Dahoman army appeared, all the Egban soldiers were at
their posts, the women being told off to carry food and drink to the
soldiers, while some of them seized swords, and insisted on doing duty
at the walls. A sketch of this last fight is given on the next page.
As soon as the invaders approached, a strong sally was made, but, as
the Dahomans marched on without returning the fire, the Egbas dashed
back again and joined their comrades on the walls. Presently, a Dahoman
cannon was fired, dismounting itself by the force of its recoil, so as
to be of no further use, and its report was followed by an impetuous
rush at the walls. Had the Dahomans only thought of making a breach,
or even of filling up the tiny moat, they might have had a chance of
success, but as it was they had none. The soldiers, especially the
Amazons, struggled gallantly for some time; and, if individual valor
could have taken the town, they would have done so. But they were badly
commanded, the officers lost heart, and even though the soldiers were
scaling the walls, creeping through the tunnels, and fighting bravely
at the very muzzles of the enemy’s guns, they gave the order for
retreat.
Just at that time, a large body of Egbas, which had made unseen a wide
circuit, fell upon them in the rear, and completed the rout. All fled
without order, except the division which Gelele himself was commanding,
and which retired with some show of discipline, turning and firing on
their adversaries, when pressed too closely, and indeed showing what
they could have done if their officers had known their business.
The Dahomans lost everything that they had taken with them, their brass
guns, a great number of new muskets, and other weapons falling into
the hands of the enemy. Besides these, the king himself was obliged to
abandon a number of his wives and daughters, his horse, his precious
sandals with their golden crosses, his wardrobe, his carriages of which
he was so proud, his provisions, and his treasures of coral and velvet.
It was calculated that some four or five thousand Dahomans were killed
in this disastrous battle, while some fifteen hundred prisoners were
captured; the Egbas only losing forty killed, and about one hundred
wounded. True to their savage nature, the Egbas cut the corpses of the
dead to pieces, and even the women who passed by the body of a Dahoman
soldier slashed it with a knife, or pelted it with stones.
It has been thought that the Abeokutas are comparatively guiltless
in blood-shedding, but it is now known that in this respect there
is really very little difference between the three great nations of
Western Africa, except that the destruction of human life is less at
Abeokuta than at Agbome, and perhaps that the Egbas are more reticent
on the subject than the Ashantis or Dahomans. Even in Abeokuta itself,
which has been supposed to be under the influence of Christianity, an
annual human sacrifice takes place, and the same ceremony is performed
in other parts of the kingdom. As in Agbome, when a human sacrifice is
offered, it is with the intention of offering to the dead that which
is most valuable to the living. The victim is enriched with cowries,
and plied with rum until he is quite intoxicated, and then, after being
charged with all sorts of messages to the spirits of the dead, he is
solemnly decapitated. Victims are sacrificed when great men die, and
are supposed to be sent to the dead man as his attendants in the spirit
world.
As to the religion and superstitions of the Egbas, they are so exactly
like those of other Western Africans that there is little need to
mention them. It only remains to describe the remarkable system called
“Ogboni.” The Ogboni are a society of enormous power, which has been
compared, but erroneously, to freemasonry. Any one who is acquainted
with the leading principles of freemasonry, and has studied the mental
condition of the Egbas, or indeed any other West African tribe, must
see that such a parallel is ludicrously wrong. In freemasonry there are
two leading principles, the one being the unity of the Creator, and the
second the fellowship of man. Now, as the Egbas believe in numberless
gods, and have the strongest interest in slavery, it is evident that
they cannot have invented a system which is diametrically opposed to
both these tenets.
[Illustration: (1.) HEAD WORSHIP. (See page 587.)]
[Illustration: (2.) THE ATTACK ON ABEOKUTA. (See page 594.)]
The system of Ogboni is partly political and partly religious. It
may be entered by a naked boy of ten years old, provided that he be
a free-born Egba and of good repute. The fraternity extends itself
throughout the whole of the country occupied by the Egbas, and in
every village there is a hut or lodge devoted expressly to the use of
the society. The form of this lodge varies slightly, but the general
features are the same in all. “It is a long low building, only to
be distinguished by the absence of loungers, fronted by a deep and
shady veranda, with stumpy polygonal clay pillars, and a single door,
carefully closed. The panels are adorned with iron alto-relievos of
ultra-Egyptian form; snakes, hawk-headed figures, and armed horsemen in
full front, riding what are intended to be horses in profile: the whole
colored red, black, and yellow. The temples of Obatala are similarly
decorated.
“The doors have distinct panels, upon which are seen a leopard, a fish,
a serpent, and a land tortoise. Mr. Beaven remarks that one of the
carvings was a female figure, with one hand and one foot, probably a
half Obatala, or the female principle of Nature, and the monster was
remarkable for having a queue of very long hair, with a ball or globe
at the end.
“A gentleman who had an opportunity of overlooking the Ogboni lodge
from the Ake church steeple described it as a hollow building with
three courts, of which the innermost, provided with a single door, was
that reserved for the elders, the holy of holies, like the Kadasta
Kadastan of the Abyssinians. He considers that the courts are intended
for the different degrees.
“The stranger must, however, be careful what he believes concerning
these mysteries. The Rev. W. Beaven asserts that the initiated are
compelled to kneel down and drink a mixture of blood and water from
a hole in the earth. The Egbas deny this. Moreover they charge Mr.
Beaven with endeavoring to worm out their secrets for the purpose of
publication. As all are pledged to the deepest reticence, and as it
would be fatal to reveal any mystery, if any there be, we are hardly
likely to be troubled with over-information.”
The miscellaneous superstitions of the Egbas are very miscellaneous
indeed. Like the Dahomans, they divide their deities into different
classes, like the major and minor gods of the ancients, and, like them,
they occasionally deify a dead ruler, and class him with the minor
gods. The native word for the greater god is Ovisha, a title which is
prefixed to the special names of those deities. Thus, Ovisha Klá, or
the Great Ovisha, is the chief of them. His sacred emblem or symbol is
a ship, and it was he who created the first man.
The next in order is Shango, who is evidently an example of an
apotheosis, as he has the attributes of Vulcan, Hercules, Tubal Cain,
and Jupiter Tonans, and is said to have a palace of brass, and ten
thousand horses. He presides over lightning and fire, and, if thunder
strikes a house, his priest rushes into the hut to find the weapon that
Shango has cast, and is followed by a tumultuous mob, who plunder the
dwelling effectually. Captain Burton saw one of the so called Shango
stones, which was nothing but a lump of white quartz, of course placed
in the hut by the priest.
His symbol is a small wooden bat, and his worshippers carry a leathern
bag, because Shango was fond of predatory wars. If war impends, his
priest takes sixteen cowries, and flings them in the air, and those
which fall with the opening downward are thought to portend war, while
those which have the opening upward signify peace. The last of the
great three is Ipa, apparently an abstractive rather than an objective
deity. He is worshipped by a select society called the “Fathers of
Secrets,” into which none but males can be initiated. His chief priest
lives on a mountain at several days’ distance from Abeokuta, and close
by his dwelling is the sacred palm tree with sixteen boughs produced by
the nuts planted by the sixteen founders of the empire. A second priest
at Abeokuta is called the King of the Groove.
The emblem of Ipa is a palm nut with four holes, and these nuts are
used in divination, the principle being something like the mode of
casting lots with cowries. Captain Burton’s account of the proceeding
is interesting. “He counted sixteen nuts, freed them from dust, and
placed them in a bowl on the ground, full of yams half-boiled, crushed,
and covered with some acid vegetable infusion.
“His acolyte, a small boy, was then called, and made to squat near the
bowl, resting his body on the outer edge of the feet, which were turned
inward, and to take from the fetish man two or three bones, seeds, and
shells, some of which are of good, others of bad omen. Elevating them,
he rested his hands on his knees. The adept cast the nuts from one hand
to the other, retaining some in the left, and, while manipulating,
dropped others into the bowl. He then stooped down, drew with the index
and medius fingers on the yams, inspected the nuts, and occasionally
referred to the articles in the boy’s hand.”
The priests of Ipa are known by necklaces made of strings of beads
twisted together, and having ten large white and green beads at some
distance apart.
Then there is the Ovisha of children, one of which is carried about by
women who have borne twins when one of them dies or is killed. It is a
wooden little image, about seven or eight inches in height, carved into
the rude semblance of humanity. The images are nearly all made by some
men at Lagos, who charge about three shillings for each. Beside all
these deities, which may be ranked among the beneficent class, there
are evil deities, who are worshipped by way of propitiation.
Next come some semi-human deities, who serve as the correctors of
public morals. The two chief of these deities are Egugun and Oro. The
former is supposed to be a sort of a vampire, being a dead body risen
temporarily from the grave, and acts the same _rôle_ as Mumbo Jumbo
in another part of Western Africa. Egugun makes his appearance in
the villages, and very much frightens the women, who either actually
believe him to be a veritable resuscitated corpse, or who assert that
they believe it, in fear of public opinion. The adult males, and even
the free-born boys, know all about Egugun, as is likely, when the deity
in question is personated by any one who can borrow the requisite dress
from the fetish man. Captain Burton once met Egugun in the street. The
demon’s face was hidden by a plaited network, worn like a mask, and
on his head was a hood, covered with streamers of crimson and dirty
white, which hung down to his waist and mingled with similar streamers
attached to his dress. He wore on his breast a very powerful fetish,
_i. e._ a penny mirror; and his feet were covered with great shoes,
because Egugun is supposed to be a footless deity.
The other deity, Oro, has a wider range of duties, his business being
to attend to public morality. He mostly remains in the woods, and but
seldom makes his appearance in public. Oro has a very strong voice,
arising, in point of fact, from a thin slip of wood, about a foot in
length, which is tied firmly to a stick, and which produces a kind of
roaring sound when properly handled.
He is supposed to be unknown to the women, who are not allowed to be
out of their houses whenever the voice of Oro is heard. Consequently,
about seven or eight in the evening, when the well-known booming cry
of Oro is heard, the women scuffle off to their houses, and the adult
males go out into the streets, and there is at once a scene of much
excitement. Dances and tumbling, processions and speech-making, go on
with vast vigor, while the Ogboni lodges are filled with devotees, all
anxious to be talking at once, and every one giving his own opinion, no
matter how absurd it may be.
Those who have been guilty of moral offences are then proclaimed and
punished; and on some occasions there is so much business to be done
that the town is given up to Oro for an entire day. On these occasions
the women pass a very unpleasant time, their hours of imprisonment
being usually spent in quarrelling with each other. In order to make
the voice of Oro more awful, the part of the demon is played by several
of the initiated, who go into the woods in various directions, and by
sounding their wooden calls at the same time carry the idea that Oro is
omnipresent.
Oro does really act as a censor of public morals, and it is very
clear that he is attended by armed followers, who carry out a sort of
rude and extemporized justice, like that which was exercised by the
“Regulators” of America, some fifty or sixty years ago. The bodies of
delinquents have been found in the bush, their throats cut and their
legs broken by the spirit in question.
The chief, or king, of the Egbas, is known by the name of Alaké, which
is a transmissible title, like Pharaoh or Cæsar, and the whole system
of government is a kind of feudal monarchy, not unlike that of England
in the days of John. The Alaké does not reign supreme, like the King
of Dahome or Ashanti, before whom the highest in the realm prostrate
themselves and roll humbly in the dust. He is trammelled with a number
of councillors and officers, and with a sort of parliament called the
Bale, which is composed of the headmen or chiefs of the various towns.
The reader may remember that the King of Ashanti found that he was
in danger of suffering from a similar combination, and he took the
prudent measure of limiting their number while he had the power. The
Alaké has never done so, and in consequence those who are nominally and
individually his servants are practically and collectively his masters.
The Ogboni lodges have also to be consulted in any important point, so
that the private life of the Alaké of the Egbas is far from being so
agreeable as that of the King of Dahome.
Okekunu, the Alaké at the time when Captain Burton lived in Abeokuta,
was an ill-favored, petulant, and cunning old ruler. In his way, he was
fond of state, and delighted to exhibit his so called power in a manner
truly African, displaying an equal amount of pageantry and trashiness.
If he goes to pay a visit, he must needs do so under a huge pink silk
umbrella, at the end of a motley procession. At the head is carried
the sacred emblem of royalty, a wooden stool covered with coarse red
serge, which is surrounded by a number of chiefs, who pay the greatest
attention to it. A long train of ragged swordsmen followed; and last
came the Alaké, clothed in a “Guinea fowl” shirt--a spotted article
of some value--and a great red velvet robe under which he tottered
along with much difficulty. He wears trousers of good purple velvet
with a stripe of gold tinsel, and on his feet are huge slippers, edged
with monkey skin. On his head he wears a sort of fez cap of crimson
velvet, the effect of which is ruined by a number of blue beads hung
fringe-wise round the top. The string of red coral beads hangs round
the neck, and a double bracelet of the same material is wound upon each
wrist. A view of him and his court may be found on the 605th page.
When he receives a visitor, he displays his grandeur by making his
visitors wait for a time proportionate to their rank, but, in case
they should be of great consequence, he alleviates the tediousness of
the time by sending them rum and gin, both of the very worst quality;
and, if they be of exceptionally high rank, he will send a bottle
of liquors, _i. e._ spirits of wine and water, well sweetened, and
flavored with a few drops of essential oil.
To a stranger, the place presents a mean and ugly appearance, and as,
Captain Burton remarks, is as unworthy of Abeokuta as St. James’s is
of London. It is a tumble-down “swish” house, long and rambling, and
has several courts. Along one side of the inner court runs a veranda,
the edge of which comes within some four feet of the ground, and is
supported by huge clay pillars. Five hexagonal columns divide the
veranda into compartments, the centre of which is the Alaké’s private
room, and is kept veiled by a curtain. The veranda, or ante-chamber,
is filled with the great men of Abeokuta, and, according to Burton’s
account, they are the most villanous-looking set of men that can well
be conceived; and although he has seen as great a variety of faces
as any one, he says that he never saw such hideous heads and faces
elsewhere.
“Their skulls were depressed in front, and projecting cocoa-nut-like
behind; the absence of beards, the hideous lines and wrinkles that
seared and furrowed the external parchment, and the cold, unrelenting
cruelty of their physiognomy in repose, suggested the idea of the
eunuch torturers erst so common in Asia. One was sure that for pity or
mercy it would be as well to address a wounded mandril. The atrocities
which these ancients have witnessed, and the passion which they have
acquired for horrors, must have set the mark of the beast upon their
brows.”
Though the assemblage consisted of the richest men of the Egbas, not a
vestige of splendor or wealth appeared about any of them, the entire
clothing of the most powerful among them being under sixpence in value.
In fact, they dare not exhibit wealth, knowing that, if they should do
so, it would be confiscated.
As for the Alaké himself, his appearance was not much more
prepossessing than that of his subjects. Okekunu was a large,
brawny, and clumsy-looking man, nearly seventy years of age, and his
partially-shaven head did not add to his beauty. Besides, he had lost
all his upper teeth except the canines, so that his upper lip sank into
an unpleasant depression. His lower teeth were rapidly decaying from
his habit of taking snuff negro fashion, by placing it between the
lower lip and the teeth, and, in consequence of the gap, the tip of his
tongue protruded in a very disagreeable manner. He had lost one eye by
a blow from a stone, and, as he assumed a semi-comatose expression,
was not a pleasant person to look at, and certainly not very regal in
aspect.
The king must be selected from one of four tribes, and both the present
king and his predecessor belonged to the Ake tribe.