The Tour of Africa: Containing a Concise Account of All the Countries in that Quarter of the Globe, Hitherto Visited by Europeans; with the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants, 2. kötet

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Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, 1821

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418. oldal - ... cruelly prolonged, I will not say wilfully. Twelve more were dragged forward, but we forced our way through the crowd, and retired to our quarters. Other sacrifices, principally female, were made in the bush where the body was buried. It is usual to " wet the grave " with the blood of a freeman of respectability.
257. oldal - ... latter withholds it ; but they do not seem to consider either of them as possessing any influence over human affairs. After death they all take their place in the sky, and enjoy a happy existence, without any regard being paid to their good or bad actions while here below. Each town has a grand kissey, or presiding divinity. It is the figure of a man, the body stuck with feathers, rags, and bits of iron, and resembles nothing so much as one of our scarecrows. The chenoo of...
321. oldal - The people of Benin believe in an invisible deity, who created heaven and earth, and governs them with absolute power ; but they conceive it needless to worship him, because he is always doing good without their services. They also believe in a malignant deity, to' whom they sacrifice men and animals, to satiate his thirst of blood, and prevent him from doing them mischief. But they have innumerable objects of worship ; as elephants...
389. oldal - ... them when they little expect such a sight. This gives a grandeur to my Customs, far beyond the display of fine things which I buy. This makes my enemies fear me, and gives me such a name in the...
439. oldal - They say that, at the beginning of the world, God created three black men, and three white, with the same number of women, and placed before them a large box, or calabash, and a sealed paper. The black men had the privilege of choosing, and they took the box expecting it contained...
417. oldal - This custom was an economical one ; yet the quantity of powder amounted to nearly twelve barrels. " 1 followed to the market-place of Assafoo, one of the suburbs of Coomassie, where the king and the chiefs, in their usual splendour, and attended by their various retinues, were seated : a semicircular area of half a mile was left open. Thirteen victims, surrounded by their executioners, stood near the king ; rum and palm wine were flowing copiously ; horns and drums were sounding their loudest notes...
505. oldal - The Africans are very subject to a species of lethargy, which they are much afraid of, as it proves fatal in every instance.
284. oldal - They think the good being requires no propitiation, and they endeavour to appease the wrath of the evil by offering him some banana trees, which they leave to perish, with the fruit untouched. These secondary divinities are imitations of the human figure, rudely carved in wood, and placed in houses like their own, or in woods or unfrequented places. If any thing considerable be stolen, one of these is brought into the market-place, with much ceremony, to discover the thief; and so much are thieves...
348. oldal - In his name they rush into battle, and encounter their foes with Spartan intrepidity. One of them said to Mr Norris, " I think of my king, and then I dare engage five of the enemy myself." He added, " My head belongs to the king, and not to myself ; if he please to send for it, I am ready to resign it; or if it be shot through in a battle, I am satisfied since it is in his service.
389. oldal - I hope you will contradict, from my mouth, the scandalous stories that have been propagated, and tell posterity that we have been abused. We do, indeed, sell to the white men a part of our prisoners, and we have a right so to do. Are not all prisoners at the disposal of their captors ? and are we to blame if we send delinquents to a far country ? I have been told you do the same.

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