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.
CHAPTER LIX.
BONNY.
THE PRINCIPAL TRADE OF BONNY — KING PEPPEL AND HIS HISTORY — THE DEFRAUDED EMIGRANTS — MR. READE’S INTERVIEW WITH PEPPEL — ARCHITECTURE OF BONNY — THE JU-JU HOUSES, PRIVATE AND PUBLIC — CANNIBALISM AT BONNY — THE JU-JU EXECUTION — WHY THE EXECUTIONER DID NOT EAT THE HEAD — DAILY LIFE OF A BONNY GENTLEMAN — DRESS OF MEN AND WOMEN — SUPERSTITIONS — MUMBO-JUMBO AND HIS OFFICE — LAST RESOURCE OF A HEN-PECKED HUSBAND — A TERRIBLE GREGREE AND ITS RESULT — THE GREGREE MEN OR MAGICIANS — INGENIOUS MODE OF WEAVING THEIR SPELLS — ESCAPE OF AN IMPOSTOR.
Passing a little southward along the west coast, we come to the well-known Bonny River, formerly the great slave depot of Western Africa, and now the centre of the palm-oil trade. Unfortunately there is as much cheating in the palm-oil trade as in gold and ivory; the two latter being plugged, and the former mixed with sand, so that it has to be boiled down before it can be sent from the coast.