a place between Kana and Abomey, with
permission of the local chief. There Dako became
powerful, and encroached on the grounds of a
neighbouring chief named Dauh or Da, the
snake or rainbow. He exacted from his weaker
neighbour more and more of his land, till at
last Da cried, "Soon thou wilt build in my
belly." And in good time Dako really killed
the king, and built over his body the old palace,
which he called "Da-homey," "the House in
Da's belly;" ho meaning the belly in the Ffon
tongue, and ho me " in the belly." Hereupon the
Ffons changed their name to Dahomans, and
it was thus, they say, that about the year
sixteen hundred and twenty-five, the kingdom of
Dahomey came into existence.

"Ardra, or Allada," says Captain Burton,
"is the Tours, or Sienna of Dahomey, where
the purest Ffon is spoken." At Abomey the
aspirates and gutturals are exaggerated, the
eftect, perhaps, of a colder climate and a more
rugged land. Whydah, on the contrary, unduly
softens the articulation; as in Egypt, this may
be attributed to the damp heat, and consequent
languor of the seaboard. At the port town the
language is a debased European jargon.

From Ardra, on the sixteenth of December,
the party journeyed on to Agrime, seeing finer
maize crops than are grown nearer the sea, on a
cleared and open highway, through grass, bush,
and jungle. Two warriors only appeared as
dancers of welcome at the very little market and
village entitled Henvi of the Hand-clapping,
because there the conqueror of Whydah, when on
his way clapped his hands in token of grief, and
marched on, refusing to delay his expedition for
his mother's funeral. A mile further on is
Henvi, or Hawee, with its tattered palace, and
its fetish house. At the gateway of the royal
house the Dahomey Amazons were first seen,
four of them joining in the usual congratulatory
dance. An hour's journey further led to Whegbo,
where there was more dancing of welcome under
fig and fetish trees, and cutting off imaginary
heads in the course of the dance, with a boast
that next month the valiant dancers would cut
off real heads in Abbeokuta. Two hours' march
from Whegbo, is Akpwe, at the southern end of
the Great Swamp. Here there were tumbledown
remains of a royal palace, the poorest of
markets, and a thin population, showing a dozen
women and children to each man. This in
Dahomey is the common condition of the population
near the capital.

The Great Swamp, which Captain Burton
names the Agrime Swamp, was once the northern
boundary between the old kingdom of Allada and
the original Dahomey. From December to June
it may be crossed in two or three hours;
between July and November, visitors to the king
have spent two days of continuous toil with ten
hammock men up to their armpits in water, and
up to their calves in mire, perpetually tripping
over the network of tree-roots, that catch
their feet. Captain Burton found the swamp
unusually dry, and the only fetor in the bush
was that of the large black ant, "which suggests
that a corpse is hidden behind every
tree."

The road was now crowded with porters
hastening up to the "Customs." At Wondonun,
the half-way house, there was the usual dancing
to be endured; another hour's march brought
the party to the thatched village of Aiveji, almost
buried in dense verdure, where there was again
drinking and dancing. Hence they pushed into
Agrime, where strangers, when the king is in
country quarters at Kana, halt and send
forward their message canes, requesting
permission to advance. The whole district thus
traversed shows that the land was at no distant
period well cleared, but that it has been running
to ruin since the Dahomans were demoralised
by slave-hunts, and long predatory wars.

The land is said to be still easy to reclaim,
though in time the fallows will be again
afforested. The country has a ruined aspect,
scanty of population, and luxuriantly wild. The
subjects of Dahomey are not allowed to cultivate
around Whydah coffee or sugar-cane, rice
or tobacco. They are everywhere forbidden to
grow ground-nuts, except for domestic purposes.
A cabboceer, or local chief, may not alter
his house, wear European shoes, employ a
spittoon-holder, carry an umbrella without
leave, spread on his bed a counterpane, mount a
hammock, or use a chair in his own house. The
common public of Abomey may not whitewash
the inside of their houses, or close them with
wooden doors. Dahomey is eaten up with
ceremonial. Our gold sticks in waiting ought
to be apprenticed to the negro king, for no
imperial or royal court in Europe can compete
with the court of Dahomey in abundance and
punctiliousness of ceremony. The negroes,
Captain Burton thinks, have little to do but
amuse themselves with inventing and observing
ceremonies, and it is for that reason they do
little else. The ceremonies of the royal
messenger to the European visitors halting at
Agrime preceded the march to Kana, where his
Dahoman majesty was to be seen. Kana, an
unwalled scatter of huts and houses, thickening,
as usual, around the palace and market-place,
and straggling over some three miles of space,
lies upon pleasant ground, that suggested to our
traveller "a vast pleasure-ground, not unlike
some part of the Great Park at Windsor," on
the other side of a deep valley stretching east
and west. Kana was entered by bright moonlight,
between crowds of spectators (from a thin
population of about four thousand), occupying
all the open places.

Captain Burton details at great length the
ceremonies of reception, but even the rich
colouring of tropical barbarism cannot make a
detail of mere ceremonial otherwise than tedious.
An old card-table, stripped of its green baize
and of much of its veneer, was paraded in
procession with the royal gin and wine; companies
and great dignitaries marched past; soldiers
danced and fired; eight skulls were paraded upon
wooden platters carried on the top of very tall
poles; musical warriors, dressed in rich silks,