INTRODUCTION. XIX 



both sexes. Their only travelling equipment is a mat to sleep on, a coarse cotton sheet for a cover, a 

 small bag containing provisions, and a little earthen pot to warm the sauce, which, with yams and pre- 

 parations of corn, is the universal diet. A carrier's burden varies in weight from forty to eighty pounds. 

 As there are neither weights nor standard measures in the country, such articles as salt, soda, and oil are 

 sold from town to town by the load till they reach a consumer. 



Markets, for the sale of provisions and other common necessaries of life, are held daily in all the towns ; 

 but the large market for the sale of general merchandise is usually held every fifth day. On these 

 occasions we frequently see thousands of people busily engaged in traffic. At Ilorii), the greatest market 

 in the country, which is held daily owing to the abundance of business, there are men from every part of 

 Central Africa, and frequently from Tripoli and other countries of the North. The merchandise includes 

 a great variety of articles, African, European, and Asiatic, from a slave to a ready-made pen and a bottle 

 of ink. 



Owing to the frequent wars which afflict the country, and partly perhaps to the gregarious disposition 

 of the people, they invariably reside in towns. Even the farmers, who are obliged to pass many of their 

 nights in the distant fields, never erect a better dwelling than a hut in the country. All the towns in the 

 interior are surrounded by rather strong mud walls five or six feet in height, with a deep ditch on the 

 outside. The gates are closed at night with heavy shutters and guarded by keepers. 



African towns are never laid out in a regular manner. All the streets, except the few which lead from 

 the gates to the market, are very narrow, and intersect each other at every possible angle. The broader 

 streets, the markets, and other open spaces are beautifully shaded with wide-spreading trees. Architecture 

 is wholly unknown. The houses, from the palace to the dwellings of the poorest people, are built of mud 

 and covered with a thatch of grass. They are all of the same form, that of a large square inclosed by a 

 series of single rooms, after the manner of a fort. The interior court, which is open to the sky, is entered 

 by a large gate with a heavy board shutter. Most of the rooms are scarcely six feet between the dirt floor 

 and the fire-proof ceiling of sticks and mortar overhead, and the usual dimensions are six or seven feet in 

 width by twelve or fifteen feet in length. As there is only one low door and no windows, these rooms 

 are always dark. During the day, the people sit in the piazza which extends in front of the rooms ; 

 when they retire to rest at night, or enter a room by day, they use an earthen lamp supplied with oil. 



The Africans have no chairs, tables, or bedsteads : their furniture consists of mats, earthen pots, bags, 

 and gourds. Their food is taken with the fingers from a deep earthen dish. A sort of sauce com- 

 posed of meats and vegetables, or of vegetables and oil only, and highly seasoned with red pepper, is 

 a universal article of diet. They never roast or boil joints of meat in Yoruba. Yams are prepared to be 

 eaten with sauce, either by simply boiling, or by boiling and pounding with the addition of water to the 

 consistence of wheaten dough. Indian corn is first soaked till it becomes a little sour, then pounded or 

 ground on a flat stone with a small stone cylinder or rubber, and the starch, after being washed out in 

 pure water, is boiled down to the consistence of thick paste. This food is much used, both diluted as a 

 warm drink in the morning, and cold in the form of round dumplings, which are wrapped in leaves for 

 sale. When they make bread, it is fried, never baked. Very little milk is used except at Il9rii). 



Most of the laboring people take their breakfast at an early hour in the streets, around the pots of women 

 who prepare food for sale. At noon they eat in the farms or wherever they may happen to be, and their 

 supper is taken just before they retire to sleep. The flesh of sheep, goats, and cows is sold daily in the 

 market ; but the people use it sparingly. Fish is not plentiful in Yoruba except on the larger streams. 



The dress of the men consists of trowsers or short breeches, a tunic or a kind of shirt without sleeves, 

 and a sheet or wrapper, or else a large flowing gown. The head, which in general is smoothly shaven, is 

 covered with a tight cloth cap, to which is sometimes added a hat or turban. A woman's dress is com- 

 posed of three wrappers, two around the waist and one over the shoulders, but the last is often laid aside. 

 Women do not shave their heads except as a mark of mourning. Their usual headdress is a fillet of cloth. 

 Horsemen wear a sort of shoes and sometimes boots. Travellers who go on foot frequently wear sandals ; 

 but most of the people of both sexes generally go barefoot. Boys are usually provided with breeches, or 

 at least an apron, at the age of five or six ; but girls of ten or twelve years often appear in the streets, from 

 choice, wearing nothing but their beads and bracelets. Most of the Yorubas are cleanly in their habits, 

 and rather fond of being finely dressed. 



The principal amusement of the young people is dancing to the sound of drums. Tlie older men meet 

 together under the shady trees to talk, and sometimes to play a sort of draughts and other games of a similar 

 nature. Several times in a year the whole population enjoy tlie recreation of religious festivals, the 

 greatest of which, called 9d(ii), or new year, occurs about the first of October. On these occasions they 



