W. F. Daniell, Esq., on the Natives of Old Callebar, 321 



European is suffered to enter the harem except medical offi- 

 cers of the shipping, and occasionally supercargoes, to trans- 

 act business with the king. Adultery, or any criminal in- 

 tercourse, is visited with dreadful punishments, of which the 

 termination is a miserable death. The dress of the women 

 is simply a piece of chintz, fastened round the loins, and the 

 men are similarly attired, the other portions of the body 

 being left entirely uncovered. The women of Old Callebar 

 have smaller families than those in the interior of Africa. 

 Females of rank and the children of chiefs wear, encompass- 

 ing their legs, twisted brass rods, brightly polished, which 

 extend as high as the calf. 



Many cruel and superstitious ceremonies occur upon the 

 death of any influential personage, whether male or female. 

 They mourn for some weeks, which is indicated by their 

 binding a black silk handkerchief across the forehead, and 

 neither washing their body nor changing their clothes ; being 

 therefore literally in sackcloth and ashes during the allotted 

 period. Two or three days elapse after the inhumation of the 

 body, when several guns and muskets are fired off, and a pro- 

 portionate quantity of slaves decapitated to accompany the 

 deceased into the next world. Wives, friends, and confiden- 

 tial servants, alike share the same fate, if the departed in- 

 dividual be a man of consequence. Upon the death of Duke 

 Ephraim, one of the former kings of Old Callebar, some hun- 

 dreds of men, women, and children, were immolated to his 

 manes — decapitation, burial alive, and the administration of 

 the poison-nut, being the methods resorted to for terminating 

 their existence. When King Eyeo, father of the present 

 chief of Creek Town, died, an eyewitness, who had only ar- 

 rived just after the completion of the funeral rites, informed 

 me, that a large pit had been dug, in which several of tlie 

 deceased's wives were bound and thrown in, until a certain 

 number had been procured ; the earth was then thrown over 

 them, and so great was the agony of these victims, that the 

 ground for several minutes was agitated with their convul- 

 sive throes. So fearful, in former times, was the observance 

 of this barbarous custom, that many towns narrowly escaped 

 depopulation. The graves of the kings are invariably con- 



