The following are the names, and prices, of each step:
| 1. Abungo | 125 Bars. |
| 2. Aboko | 75 Bars. |
| 3. Makaira | 400 White copper rods. |
| 4. Bakimboko | 100 Bars. |
| 5. Yampai | 850 White copper rods, |
also some rum, goats, membo, &c. &c.
The Yampai is the only class of Egbo men that are allowed to sit in council. The sums paid for the different titles of Egbo are divided among the Yampai only, who are not confined to a single share, for a Yampai may have his title multiplied as often as he chooses to purchase additional shares, which entitles the person so purchasing to a corresponding number of portions in the profits arising out of the establishment.
Their mode of administering justice is as follows: When a person cannot obtain his due from a debtor, or when any injury has been received, personally or otherwise, the aggrieved party applies to the Duke for the Egbo drums; acquainting him at the same time with the nature of his complaint: if the Duke accedes to the demand, the Egbo assembly immediately meet, and the drums are beat about the town; at the first sound of which every woman is obliged to retreat within her own dwelling, upon pain of losing her head for disobedience: nor until the drum goes round the second time, to shew that council is ended, and the Egbo returned, are they released from their seclusion. If the complaint be just, the Egbo is sent to the offending party to warn him of his delinquency, and to demand reparation, after which announcement no one dares move out of the house inhabited by the culprit, until the affair is settled, and if it be not soon arranged, the house is pulled down about their ears, in which case the loss of a few heads frequently follows. This extremity, however, rarely occurs, for if the offender be not able to settle the matter himself, it is generally made up by his relations and friends.
The Egbo man—that is the executive person wears a complete disguise, consisting of a black network close to the skin from head to foot, a hat with a long feather, horns projecting from his forehead, a large whip in his right hand, with a bell fastened to the lower part of his back, and several smaller ones round his ankles. Thus equiped he starts from the Egbo-house, runs through the streets with his bells ringing, to the house of the offender, followed by half a dozen subordinate personages fantastically dressed, each carrying either a sword or stick.
I one day asked King Eyo who this Egbo was, who ran about with the bells, "What? you tink Egbo be man, no, he be debil, come up from bush, nobody know him," was his reply.
It is their custom upon the death of a great man, to have one of his slaves, male or female, taken down to the side of the river to make what they call a devil, which means, I presume, an offering to the Evil Spirit; this is done in the following manner. A stake is driven into the ground close to the water's edge, to this the poor wretch is fastened, the head being pulled as high as possible to stretch the neck for the sword, by which he is to be decapitated, and after the deed is accomplished they carry the head through the town rejoicing.
These frightful orgies used to take place in the daytime, but in consequence of the repeated remonstrances from the Captains of vessels, who were shocked by the frequency of these horrid scenes, performed in sight of all the ships in the river, they now take place in the night; for my own part I think that the noise occasioned by their savage merriment, and their running about during the stillness of night, produces a more appalling picture to the imagination, than even the reality of the scene in broad day; the only difference is that there are fewer spectators, as the greater number of those on board the vessels are wrapt in profound repose.
The practice of burying the youngest and favourite wives with the corpse is by no means uncommon,[[36] ] and they resort to a variety of cruel practices for maiming and destroying their slaves; thus they cut off parts or the whole of their ears, a part of the nose, a finger or a hand. One of the servants who waited upon us at the King's house, had lost an ear in this way, for some trifling offence.