BURYING A CANNIBAL KING.

Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 61, 14 March 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

BURYING A CANNIBAL KING.

A returned missionary from the African Gold Coast tells some woeful stories of the cruelties of human sacrifice practised by the fetish priests. The disposition of these people is so mild that it is a mystery how they can indulge in the practice of such cruelties, such as human sacrifices, for which they have become famous. Tho missionaries believe that but for the fetish priests, who are exceedingly shrewd, and who have a strong interest in perpetuating these bloody sacrifices, as their power is based on them, the> country would be easily civilised. Under the reign of Gneze, the late King of Dahomey, human sacrifices had. become comparatively rare ; but his successor, Grerry, a slave to the fetish priests, has revived them, and now they are practised with greater cruelty than ever. The number of slaves who annually perish in this way is estimated at several hundreds. The King of Dahomey is, as is known, the most ferocious and powerful ruler in the whole region. During ten months of the year he makes incursions into the neighbouring territories, capturing a large number of slaves. In this work he is chiefly assisted by his two celebrated regimentsof Amazons. The prisoners taken during these expeditions are divided into three classes. One class is sold to the slave merchants of the interior; another, chiefly women, are fattened and sold to the butchers, who, revolting as the fact may be, even to relate, openly sell human flesh in their shops. The third class is reserved for tho religious sacrifice. At the season of the "grand customs," victims are sacrificed in the fetish forest. On the ninth day after the instalment of a new king, he and his suite, proceeded by his fetish priests, move in procession to the sacred wood, where the grave of the late king hadbeen dug. The sacrifice began. Seven slaves were killed, and their blood mixed with earth to form a kind of plaster, with which the grave was lined. The heads of the seven victims, with food t of all kinds, were deposited at the bottom. The body of the king was next lowered into the grave. Then were seen approaching nine of his women, draped in their brightest coloured garments and purposely intoxicated with " taffin " or mm. Believing themselves to be the objects of an ovation, they cast smiles on every .side as they passed through the throng. On reaching the edge of open grave they were made to kneel, and before they had any suspicion, were stunned by a blow on the head and flung, still alive, upon the body of their royal spouse. Earth was then thrown in to cover the living and dead. The sacrifices to the gods are marked by greater and more varied refinements of cruelty. The shrines resemble dog-houses — appropriate dwellings for their idols, which are hideous-looking monbters. These ceremonies begin with a dance. In front of the shrine a circle is formed by the leaders of the people sitting down, while the rude

multitude remain standing. Holding a tuft ot human hair in his hand, a priest dances in the centre, the circle uttering savage cries, clapping their hands, or playing wild instruments resembling bells, tambourines, and cymbals. During the night the fetish priests provide the god with one or more victims. The most common form of human sacrifice to Ognn, the god of war, is to behead the human offering and nail the body upside down to a tree, the head placed above the feet. At other times a young tree is stripped of its branches, bent down by means of a rope, and so held by a kind of trigger. With the exception of the head, the victim is enclosed in a wicker-box globe and suspended, head downward, or his head is incased in the stumps of the leaves which form the crown of the palm tree. The priest loosens the rope, the tree springs back, and the victim is left swinging in the air. Birds of prey soon diapose of the body.