An animal of the hyena tribe, called by the natives tweetwee, is likewise extremely troublesome; herds of these join together, and scrape up the earth of newly-made graves, in order to get at the bodies, which are not buried here in coffins. These resurrection men, as Lander termed them, make, during the night, a most dismal howling, and often change their note to one very much resembling the shriek of a woman in some situation of danger or distress.
Snakes of the boa species are here found of a most enormous size, many being from thirty to thirty-six feet in length, and of proportional girth. They attack alike wild and domestic beasts, and often human kind. They kill their prey by encircling it in their folds, and squeezing it to death, and afterwards swallow it entire; this they are enabled to do by a faculty of very extraordinary expansion in their muscles, without at the same time impairing the muscular action or power. The bulk of the animals which these serpents are capable of gorging would stagger belief, were the fact not so fully attested as to place it beyond doubt. The state of torpor in which they are sometimes found in the woods, after a stuffing meal of this kind, affords the negroes an opportunity of killing them. Lander informed us, that there is not in nature a more appalling sight than one of these monsters in full motion. It has a chilling and overpowering effect on the human frame, and it seems to inspire with the same horror every other animal, even the strongest and most ferocious; for all are equally certain of becoming victims, should the snake once fasten itself upon them.
The religion of this country is paganism. They believe in two beings, equal in power; the one doing good, the other evil; and they pray to the demon to allow them to remain unmolested by the magicians, who are constantly endeavouring to injure them.
In Whidah, for some unaccountable reason, they worship their divinity under the form of a particular species of snake called daboa, which is not sufficiently large to be terrible to man, and is otherwise tameable and inoffensive. These daboas arc taken care of in the most pious manner, and well fed on rats, mice, or birds, in their fetish houses or temples, where the people attend to pay their adoration, and where those also who are sick or lame apply for assistance.
The tiger is also an object of religious regard in Dahomy Proper; but they deem it the safest mode of worship to perform their acts of devotion to his skin only after death, which is stuffed for that purpose.
The people of Whidah occasionally imagine themselves inspired by the divinity, or, as they term it, are seized by the fetish; and in such cases, it becomes necessary, from the frantic manner in which they run about, to secure and place them under the charge of the fetisheers, or priests, until this fit of inspiration be over, and they become themselves again.
The political management of Whidah is entrusted to a viceroy, who is called the Yavougah, or captain of the white men. This officer, at the time of Lander's visit to the country, was a man of majestic stature, and possessed an uncommon share of dignity, mingled with complacency of manner. His dress was generally a large hat, somewhat resembling that of a Spanish grandee, tastefully decorated, and a piece of damask silk, usually red, thrown over one shoulder, like a Scotch plaid, with a pair of drawers; but his arms and legs were bare, except the bracelets of silver, which encircled the arm above the elbow, with manillas of the same sort, and rows of coral round the wrist.
When he had any message to deliver from the king, or other public affairs to transact with the Europeans, it was done with much ceremony and state; his guards, musicians, and umbrella-bearers, and a numerous retinue, always attending him. The most polished courtier of Europe could not have deported himself more gracefully on public occasions than this man, or have carried on a conference with greater ease and affability. He was master, besides his own, of the English, French, and Portuguese languages, having resided from his birth chiefly in the vicinity of the European forts, and in his younger days had been much connected with them, officially as a linguist.
Although, therefore, he understood perfectly what was said to him by the Europeans, who accompanied Lander, yet it was etiquette for the viceroy to be spoken to through an interpreter, and it was often amusing to see the bungling efforts of the latter in the performance of a task, which the yavougah himself so much better understood, and which he good humouredly, and in an under tone, assisted him to complete. After the business of ceremony was finished, he laid aside all formality, and conversed in a familiar manner upon general subjects, the whole party joining convivially in a collation, or repast, which was always served up on such occasions.
The government of Dahomy is, in the fullest sense of the word, despotism. It is a monarchy the most unlimited and uncontrolled on the face of the earth, there being no law but the king's will, who may chop off as many heads as he pleases, when he is "i' the vein," and dispose of his subjects' property as he thinks fit, without being accountable to any human tribunal for his conduct. He has from three to four thousand wives, a proportion of whom, trained to arms, under female officers, constitute his body-guards. As may naturally be supposed, but a few of these wives engage his particular attention.