Surrounding all these dwellings is a wall of clay. This is from fifteen to twenty feet high, and pierced with several gates. Here and there at intervals iron hooks project, and from these are suspended the heads of decapitated subjects, some whitened and bleached by time, others ghastly tokens of recent sacrifices in pagan worship.
In front of the doorways of the dwellings, piles of elephant bones may be found heaped up. These are probably trophies of the chase, and yet they seem to be held in superstitious fear by the natives.
The Dahomans are tall, well formed, and intelligent. For an African race they are wonderfully honest, and are well advanced in a knowledge of agriculture. They are almost all pagans, and practice the most heathenish rites. The king is an absolute despot, having complete control over the lives and the possessions of his people.
One of the cruel practices, formerly, was the tremendous sacrifice of human lives during any of the religious ceremonies. One king caused seven thousand followers to be killed at the death of his father.
A peculiar feature of the army was the corps of Amazons, or female soldiers. They have been described as more effective than their male comrades in time of war. The flower of the corps perished in a siege in 1867, and the soldiers were greatly reduced in numbers. The remaining force since then has been divided into three brigades, each of which has a distinguishing mode of dressing the hair.
Leaving the Dahomey kingdom, we reach the dead levels of the delta of the Niger, which has twenty-two main channels, separated by swamps of mangrove trees.
The navigation of the Niger is now carried on by a half dozen or more light steamers. These ascend the current from the Atlantic to the factories situated at the junction with the Binue, and even farther up both streams. These steamers carry on an exchange of European goods for ivory, palm oil, and butter from the olivelike seeds of the butter tree. All these steamers need to be well armed, in case of an attack from hostile natives.
Abo, at the head of the delta, is in the very heart of the oil section. There are two or three important native towns farther up the river, and at the mouth of the Binue is an important mission station. This is under the management of a negro bishop. This mission station, Lukoja, is also a great depot and trading station of the British Niger Company, which has control over the government of the river.
Egga, a large Mohammedan town a day's journey by steamer above Lukoja, is at present the limit of the European trade on the Niger.
Beyond the delta of the Niger we find the estuaries of the Old Calabar and Cameroons rivers. These are famed as being the "oil rivers" of West Africa, owing to the great supply of oil which is brought down their currents from the interior.