Anniversary offerings are made by all who can afford them, to commemorate the death of their parents. On these occasions sheep, goats, and fowls, are killed in abundance, and the friends and relatives are invited to a grand feast. They believe the spirits of the departed relatives are present, and they often address them as if they were partaking of, and enjoying all their luxuries. This feast generally terminates in the whole party getting into a brutal state of intoxication. Other customs equally absurd are also kept annually; this latter custom is held by the moon, which happened this year on the 11th of April. Its purpose is to ensure to all spirits of departed friends a safe and easy passage across the great waters westward. They mean the river Votta. If this custom were not kept up, they believe the spirits would wander on the banks for the space of one hundred years, before they would have performed sufficient penance for their friends’ neglect.
The snake is also a fetish or idol here; and houses are built in several parts of the town for the accommodation of snakes, where they are regularly fed. These houses are about seven feet high in the walls, with conical roof, about eight feet diameter, and circular. The snakes are of the boa-constrictor tribe, and are considered quite harmless, although I have my doubts upon it. They generally leave this house at intervals, and when found by any of the natives, are taken up and immediately conveyed back to the fetish-house, where they are placed on the top of the wall, under the thatch. It is disgusting to witness the homage paid to these reptiles by the natives. When one of them is picked up by any one, others will prostrate themselves as it is carried past, throwing dust on their heads, and begging to be rubbed over the body with the reptile. After taking the snake up, a very heavy penalty is incurred by laying it down, before it is placed in the fetish-house. Wherever a snake is found it must be immediately carried to the fetish-house, whether it has ever been placed there before or not.
Snakes abound about Whydah; their average length is four feet and a half; head flat, and neck small in proportion. Four different sorts or species are found here. Of the lizard, the most rare is a species of snake-lizard, of a greyish brown colour on the back, belly white; a streak of delicate scarlet blends the colours of the back and belly. They are rapid in their movements, either in climbing or running, but, like the snake, always retreat to cover. The case, however, is not so with the common field-lizard, which is much more nimble, and if pursued generally makes towards a tree or wall. The former is more round and harder in flesh, consequently not so elastic, and if struck with a rod will break short at the part struck. Not so the field-lizard: as I have said, that is nimble in all its movements, and I have often observed it spring into the air to catch a fly. The male is beautifully coloured, blue, red, and yellow; but like the chameleon, it has the power of changing its colour. After death the colours immediately lose their brilliancy. The lizard tribe is very useful in destroying insects. The house-lizard also abounds in Whydah; this reptile is quite harmless and very nimble. Its claws are very sharp: it is capable of catching a fly or ant when running along the ceiling, although sometimes in darting on its prey it falls on the floor. It destroys spiders, ants, small beetles, moths, and many other insects; it is about five inches long, the head broader and eyes more prominent and brighter than those of any other of the lizard tribe. It is of a colour between a light grey and a brown, without any other variation, and, like the snake-lizard, it is broken by the slightest touch. The field-lizard lays two eggs of the size of the English sparrow’s egg, quite white, covered only by a soft cuticle or membrane. The fetish-snake lays a considerable number of eggs, and lays two at the same time. These are about the size of a sparrow’s egg also, but both ends are of the same oval form, about the same as the largest end of the sparrow’s egg. They are generally found amongst decayed leaves or dry rubbish.
Great varieties of insects are also to be found in and around this neighbourhood, amongst which I have observed some of great peculiarity; but as I am no entomologist, I must content myself with describing a few. First, the vampire-bat, said not to be found except here and at Abomey, although a species very much resembling the latter is found at Accra and different places on the coast. Still it is very different in size, appearance, and habit; the same sort found at Accra is here also, but it never mixes or associates with the large Whydah vampire-bat.[11] The former measures only about eighteen inches between the tips of the wings, the latter varies from thirty-three to thirty-six inches. They also fly in the day-time instead of at night. The body is about eight inches long, and twelve inches round; it weighs about a pound and a half. The shape of the head is similar to that of an English terrier, except the eye and nostril, which resemble those of a thorough-bred horse. The ear is much larger in proportion than that of a dog, and is shaped like that of a rat. The front teeth are feline; the back grinders like those of the ox. They possess great power in their jaws, and are as tenacious of life as a cat, living for several days with a severe fracture of the skull. The body possesses great strength, having eleven ribs; its back (that of the male) is of a very dark brown colour, bordered round the diameter or horizontal part of the back (which is flat) with a stripe of grey. The belly is considerably lighter, in a mouse colour, and half way round the throat, on the under side, of a beautiful yellow colour, an inch in width. The female is deficient in the latter ornament. The wings resemble the small bat, and have five large claws and a feeler, or smaller claw, merely attached to the web part of the wing. The frame-work of the wing is very strong of bone as well as muscle. The first joint from the shoulder-joint to the elbow measures five and a quarter inches, and from the elbow to the wrist four inches and three-quarters, the longest part forming the fingers (middle one), seven inches and a half. The hind legs are short and strong, and attached to the pelvis bone, apparently quite the reverse of any other animal with which I am acquainted. The pelvis is like that of any other animal turned upside down. They are furnished with five strong feline claws on each hind foot, but not placed like fingers and thumb, all grasping or hooking the same way, each claw forming two-thirds of a circle. Except when flying, they roost on trees, always hanging by the hinder claws, the head downwards. They couple like the monkey tribe, and have young annually. They carry their young constantly, till capable of taking care of itself, whether flying or at roost. The female has two breasts or teats, which resemble (anatomically speaking) those of a woman. The milk is thick and very white. They bear young in the months of February and March, and migrate to different places in the kingdom of Dahomey, according to the fruit seasons of the different districts. Their visit to Whydah is from the end of March till the end of April. They live chiefly upon the gwaba and cachu, plantains and bananas. The native name at Whydah is Tookay. I forgot to mention, that the body is covered with very fine down or hair.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Gregapojee is mostly abbreviated into Greejee.
[10] This I know practically, as I am well acquainted with agricultural labour.
[11] I have preserved several specimens of these insects, and sent them to England.
CHAPTER VII.
Locusts—The Winged Ant—Its Destructive Nature—Horse attacked by them—Their Ingenuity in Building—Stock—Great Want of Mechanics—Portuguese Whydah—Emigrants from Sierra Leone—Their Deplorable Condition—English at the Fort of Whydah—Military Resources of Dahomey—Polygamy—Mode of Shipping Slaves—Brutality on these occasions—Porto Sogoora—Mr. Lawson’s Slaves—Greejee—Toll imposed there—Zahlivay—Yakasgo—Badaguay—The Cabbage Palm-tree—Wooded Scenery—The Palm-tree—Exploring Visit to the Haho—Misfortunes of Ithay Botho, Capt. Clapperton’s Servant—Adventures—Curiosity of the Natives—Podefo and its Market—Alligators—My Crew mutiny from fear—Hippopotami—Superstition of the Natives—A party of Fishermen, and their Fish-traps—Base Conduct of the Fishermen—My Punishment of them and my Crew.