White People are seldom or never admitted to Presence, but at the times they pay their Customs; very considerable from Europeans, who drive here the greatest Slave-Trade of any on the whole Continent: Besides these Dues, the King augments his Revenue by a Duty on every thing bought or sold by his People. To his Women, he gives entirely the Privilege of making and selling a Beer brewed from Indian Corn, pretty much in use here, called Putto.
The King of Ardra is his potent and warlike Neighbour; a populous Country, full of large Crooms or Towns, and all of them obsequious Slaves, who dare not sell or buy any thing without Licence, and both ways he exacts a Custom. It is by means of this Country that so great a number of Slaves are brought down to Whydah and sold to the Europeans naked; the Arse-clouts they had, I fancy, having been the Plunder of the Populace: for altho’ they are kept strictly under, in respect to the Great-ones among themselves, they have in recompence, a thievish, unlicensed Behaviour to others.
Both Sexes squat when they make water, and the Women may obtain a Palaaver and Fine against any Man, who at such time should indecently discover his Privities.
Travelling is in [27]Hammocks, called here Serpentines; they are with Curtains to draw round, against Heat or Flies, slung cross a Pole and bore up at each end by a Negro, two others attending in the Journey, to relieve alternately: The Heat makes it dangerous for Englishmen to travel without them, and they are hired at six Shillings a day.
Provisions are plentiful above any place on the whole Coast, but neither very cheap nor large. A Cow of 300lib. weight is reckoned a fine Beast, and will sell for two grand Quibesses; a Calf of 80lib. weight for one grand Quibess; a Sheep of 12lib. for eight Gallinas; Fowls, five for a Crown; a Dozen Wild-fowl, or a Hog, for the same Money: but it’s convenient on this Voyage always to provide Cowrys or Booges (little Indian Shells, called in England Blackamoors Teeth, bought at 1s. and sold here at 2s. 6d. per lib.) as the readiest for this sort of Traffick. Coin is the dearest way of buying, at distance from Europe.
Whydah Currency.
| 40 | Cowrys make a | Toccy. |
| 5 | Toccys —— a | Gallina. |
| 20 | Gallinas —— a | Grand Quibess, which answers to 25 Shillings. |
Horses, are what I never saw any where else on the Continent.
The most curious of their Customs, and peculiar to this Part, is their Snake-Worship, which, according to my Intelligence, is as follows. This Snake, the Object of their Worship, is common in the Fields, and cherished as a familiar Domestick in their Houses, called Deyboys; they are yellow, and marbled here and there, have a narrow Swallow, but dilatable (as all of the Serpent Kind are) to the thickness of your Arm on feeding. It is the principal Deity or Fetish of the Country, and brought into more Regularity than others, by the superiour Cunning of their Fetishers, who have one presiding over them, called the grand Fetisher, or High-Priest, who is held in equal Reverence with the King himself; nay, sometimes more, through gross Superstition and Fear: for they believe an Intercourse with the Snake, to whom they have dedicated their Service, capacitates them to stop or promote the Plagues that infest them. He hath the craft by this means, to humble the King himself on all occasions for their Service, and to drain both him and the People, in supplying their Wants. It is Death for a Native to kill one of these Snakes, and severe Punishments to Europeans. When Rains are wanted at Seed-time, or dry Weather in Harvest, the People do not stir out after it is night, for fear of the angry Snake, which, provoked with their Disobedience, they are taught, will certainly kill them at those times, if abroad, or render them Ideots.