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98 was concerned, all real eating and drinking had to be deferred till the proceedings of the day were concluded.

" ' There appeared to be no regular commencement, but, seemingly by a kind of general impulse, drums began to be beaten, horns blown, and trade muskets discharged in the air. Then cows' horns, filled with powder and tamped with clay, were fired off with a thundering report and considerable danger to the neighbors, and, with the exception of the king, who practically never appeared in public, and of his immediate attendants, the whole population of the town flocked to the spot where the ghastly preparations were already well advanced.

" ' The priests and the warriors and women gathered in a great circle round the pits ; the slaves who had carried the victims from the town, bound hand and foot to poles and rolled in cheap calico, at a sign came forward and laid them two and two beside each excavation, one man and one woman to each. Cutting the lashings that secured them to the poles, they took these away. Then one of the priests began a sort of exhortation to the people, telling them that the king had graciously given orders for the erection of a new Juju House, which would be for the general benefit; then, after animadverting upon the crucifixions of the young women that had taken place two days previously for the prevention of famine and drought, he referred to the head-cutting of the day before, and declared that the auguries drawn from the positions in which the heads had fallen had been most favorable, that the posts of the Juju House were about to be set up in accordance with them, that the heads would be