BEN 



459 



B E N 



Benin, the state of society in which they live, than upon 

 ~"~ v - "' their ingenuity. Next to cotton cloth, the most com- 

 mon product : ons of their industry are mats, baskets, 

 and spoons, and other instruments of ivory, which 

 are brought to some perfection. 



The inhabitants of Benin are divided into three 

 classes. The first consists of the three great lords 

 who attend the king, and through whom alone all 

 requests and applications can be conveyed to the 

 throne. The next class is composed of the viceroys, 

 or governors of provinces, and the street kings, whose 

 )fnce somewhat resembles that of our mayors and 

 aldermen. All of these owe their advancement to 

 the recommendation of the three great lords ; and on 

 it appointment are presented by the sovereign 

 "ith a string of coral, which they wear constantly 

 about their necks, as a badge of their authority. To 

 cc . ;at chain of office is felony ; and even to 



it is inevitable death. The third class includes 

 all the rest of the inhabitants. All these classes are 

 the slaves ef the sovereign, whose mandates are re- 

 ceived with the most servile awe. But no subject of 

 the king of Benin can be sold into foreign servitude. 

 Even those, who are condemned to slavery for their 

 crimes, are never sold to Europeans, nor transported 

 from their native land. The women alone, oppressed 

 and degraded throughout the whole of Africa, do 

 not enjoy the advantage of that merciful law, but 

 lay be sold and transported at the will of their pa- 

 rents and husbands. Male slaves may, indeed, be 

 purchased on the coast of Benin ; but they are all 

 strangers who have been taken in war, or who have 

 fallen by any other accident into the hands of the 

 natives. 



The religion of this country is the same which 

 prevails in all the nations of Guinea, and will there- 

 fore be more properly described under the article of 

 that name. (See Guinea.) Polygamy is here al- 

 lowed without restriction ; and jealousy, its invariable 

 consequence, is felt in all its violence. Unmarried 

 persons of either sex may indulge the tender passion 

 without censure; but adultery, when detected, is ge- 

 nerally punished with death. Male children are ac- 

 counted the property of the king ; but the females 

 are left to the disposal of the parents. Infants of 

 both sexes are circumcised when a fortnight old, and 

 their bodies are marked with incisions, intended to re- 

 present particular figures. So strongly are the inha- 

 bitants of Benin attached to their country, that they 

 account it the severest of all misfortunes to be buried 

 in a foreign land. Those, therefore, who happen to 

 die at a distance from home, are preserved for years till 

 their bodies can be conveyed to the spot that gave 

 :n birth. The term of mourning for a near rela- 

 tive is generally limited to fourteen or fifteen days, 

 and on these occasions it is usual to shave the head 

 cr beard. The funeral oWquk-s of their kings are 

 celebrated in a frantic and barbarous manner. The 

 tombstone i6 covered with a banquet of the richest 

 dainties, and the most delicate wines, of which all pre- 

 sent are allowed to partake. The mourners, when 

 heated with liquor, run about like madmen, killing 

 all without distinction who come in their wav, and 

 having cut off their heads, they carry them to the 

 jjoyal sepulchre, and throw them along with the gar- 



ments and spoils of those whom they have sacrificed, 

 as an offering to the manes of their departed sove- 

 reign. 



With the exception of the Portuguese, who have 

 an insignificant factory at Awerri, the Dutch are the 

 only Europeans who have any establishments in the 

 kingdom of Benin. The king has allowed them to 

 erect a magazine at Agatton, where they carry on a 

 considerable trade. The articles which they export 

 are pepper, ivory, the oil and bark of the palm tree, 

 slaves, leopard skins, and acori, or blue coral. In 

 exchange for these, they import red and scarlet cloths, 

 drinking-cups with red stained brims, all sorts of fine 

 cotton, woollen stuffs, linen-cloth, oranges, lemons, 

 and other green fruits preserved, red velvet, ear-rings 

 of red glass, copper bracelets, &c. 



The natives are extremely faithful in their deal- 

 ings, but so slow, that it is often eight or ten days 

 before they have made the necessary arrangements for 

 a single article of commerce. Every native who en- 

 gages in trade, pays a certain sum to government by- 

 way of licence, but no duty is levied on the articles 

 in which they traffic. Europeans pay a custom so 

 trifling as scarcely to deserve mention, (fi) *" * < 



BENIN, the capital of the above kingdom, is plea- 

 santly situated at the mouth of the river Formosa, 

 in the midst of a flat but beautiful country. Its 

 streets, which arc very long and broad, are constant- 

 ly filled with the various articles of commerce, and 

 present the bustle of a crowded market ; yet they are" 

 always remarkably clean. The houses are large, and 

 though their walls are of clay, the reeds and leaves 

 with which their roofs are covered, give them a very 

 pleasing appearance. This town is said to be about 

 four miles in circumference. It stands at the distance 

 of 69 miles from Agatton, in Lat. 6 10' North, 

 Long. 5 6' East. See Smith's Voyage to Guinea t 

 Peuchet's Diet, de la Geog. &c. (,) 



BENISOUEF, is a large and opulent town of 

 Egypt, about a mile and a half in circumference, 

 situated on the west bank of the Nile. Though the 

 houses are only small buildings coarsely constructed 

 of brick, yet the beautiful and lofty minarets which 

 it contains, have a magnificent appearance when seen 

 from a distance through the tall date trees which shel- 

 ter the town. The soil of the surrounding country is 

 very productive ; and in the town there is a manufac- 

 ture of coarse carpets. Benisouef is the residence of 

 a bey. According to the accurate observations of 

 M. Jaccotin, Benisouef is situated in East Long. 

 31 13' 0", and in North Lat. 29 8' 28". See Sa- 

 va/y's Travels; and Sonnini's Travels, (q) 



BENLAWERS. See Perthshire. 



BENLOMOND. See Dumbartonshire. 



BENTLEY, Richakd, one of the most cele- 

 brated critics of whom England can boast, was born 

 at Oulton, in Yorkshire, of obscure parents, on the 

 27th of January 1662. He received the first rudi- 

 ments of classical learning at the free school of Wake- 

 field, and in his fifteenth year was entered at St John's 

 College, Cambridge. Here he pursued his studies 

 with unparalleled assiduity and success. In the course 

 of a few years he had filled a thick quarto volume 

 with a kind of Hexapla, in the first column of which 

 was every word of the Hebrew Bible, alphabetically 



Benin 



II 

 Bentley. 



