Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/50

Rh in the bed-room, under the bed, from which he was with difficulty afterwards removed. It need not be added that they gave no more trouble, and the practice they sought to break up was only the more increased for their pains.

Although the person made king must be of the royal family, yet a son seldom succeeds, but usually a brother by the same mother, or a son of a sister, also of the same mother. Such a person is certainly a relative, while from circumstances growing out of the system of polygamy, the son of from fifty to two hundred wives might not be the child of the husband. Property also descends in the same manner. The appointment of the king devolves on the chiefs and elders of the Ogboni, the latter of course all old men. Some of them are men of great influence themselves, and as their power would be limited by an efficient monarch, they are not likely to choose such.

The King, or Alake, as he is called, is not, as in civilized countries, the executive: his office seems to be more to preside at all important councils. He exercises other functions not well understood by strangers. The government is divided into several departments. The Elders constitute the judiciary. The officers of the Ogboni, a secret order, exercise legislative func-