GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 365 
The title and authority of the Chenoo are hereditary, 
through the female line, as a precaution to make certain of 
the blood royal in the succession ; for although the number 
of the Chenoo’s wives is unlimited, none but the offspring 
of her who is descended from royal blood, can inherit; and 
in default of issue from any such, the offspring of any other 
princess married to a private person, lays claim to the chief- 
ship, and the consequences are such as might be expect- 
ed; feuds and civil broils arise, which terminate only in 
the destruction of the weaker party. A Chenoo’s daughter 
has the privilege of chusing her own husband, and the per- 
son she fixes upon is not at liberty to refuse; but it is a 
perilous distinction which is thus conferred upon him, as 
she has also the privilege of disposing of him into slavery, 
in the event of his not answering her expectations. Aware 
of his ticklish sitnation, he is sometimes induced to get the 
start of her, and by the help of some poisonous mixture, 
with the efficacy of which the people of Congo are well 
acquainted, rids himself of his wife and his fears at the 
same time. 
When a Chenoo appears abroad, one of his great officers 
carries before him his scepter or staff of authority, which 
is a small baton of black wood about a foot in length, in- 
laid with lead or copper, like the worm of a screw, and 
crossed with a second screw, so as to form the figures of 
rhomboids. What their native dresses may be beyond the 
sphere of communication with European slave-dealers, is 
not exactly known, but little more probably than an apron 
of some skin-cloth, or grass-matting ; the lion’s skin to sit 
