Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/318

 262 VEST AFEIOA. war dances are performed with a precision unequalled by the best -trained ballet corps, and Skertchley describes one of these military displays with dances, songs, and sacrifices, which lasted no less than sixteen hours. Human victims were formerly immolated wholesale at the graves of the king and powerful chiefs, and, as in India, wives often volunteered to join their husbands in the other life. This continual flow of blood had accustomed the people of Dahomey to scenes of incredible cruelty. Travellers describe in detail the massacres, tortures, crucifixions, and arrangement of the dead bodies in artistic groups along the avenues. One of the yearly ceremonies consisted in filling a great reservoir left open for those who preferred to commit suicide ; while the terrible Draconic laws always supplied victims in abundance for the national tered being roasted and devoured smoking hot. At the same time by most of the natives the prospect of a violent end was little dreaded. The belief in immortality was so absolute, that to them death seemed a mere passage from the shadow of a dream to a real and everlasting life. When the king, " cousin of the leopard," wished to hold converse with his ancestry, he despatched the first to hand as an envoy to the far-off world, and the kindred of the dead felt highly honoured at their sovereign's choice. But the struggles of rival creeds for supremacy must inevitably tend to weaken this simple faith in an after life, and thus enhance respect for the earthly existence. The boy or girl formerly sacrificed at every grave is already replaced by a kid, and the wholesale massacres attending the annual customs are no longer regarded by the sovereign as necessary for the safeguarding of the monarchy. The extensive region lying between Dahomey, the Bight of Benin, and the Niger watershed, is peopled by the Eyos, Iktus, Egbas, Yebus, and other kindred tribes collectively known as Nagos, or else Yorubas, from the name of the country and the current speech. They differ little from their Ewe neighbours, presenting the ordinary type of the coast Negroes, although of somewhat lighter complexion, with less prognathous jaw, and thinner lips. Each tribe is distinguished by a system of tattooing, which is a real national emblem uniformly executed on every individual. All travellers describe the Yorubas as a gentle, kindly people, faithful to their word, extremely docile, artless and .sincere, and ever less mindful of injuries than of favours. On the frequented highways sheds covered with foliage {arojelis) are set up at intervals for the convenience of wayfarers, who here find shelter, water, and wine, and who, if so minded, may deposit a few cowries in return. The sociable Yorubas are almost everywhere grouped in urban communities, so that populous towns are numerous in their territorv. Even the peasantry prefer to reside in the towns, willingly making long daily walks between their homes and their farms. On these they raise large quantities of maize and yams, the great staples of food, besides millet, manioc (tapioca), sweet potatoes, pulse, ground-nuts, various species of vegetables, bananas, and other fruits. Agriculture is their chief industry, and they display great skill in extracting the palm wine
 * ' customs." Cannibalism also was recently practised, the bodies of the slaugh-