VISIT TO KING OBIE. 101 



we paid Obie a morning visit, and were kindly 

 received by him. He showed us his favourite 

 wife, a fine woman of about sixteen, and jet-black, 

 which I agree with him is preferable to any of 

 the intermediate shades. Her apartment was 

 remarkably clean, and the walls of it were lined 

 with matting. Obie himself is a particularly 

 handsome man; he stands above six feet high, 

 has a prominent nose and oval face, good eyes, 

 and a pleasing expression of countenance, com- 

 bining intelligence with good-nature. I asked 

 him the distance from Brass Town and Benin : 

 his answer was. Brass Town, seven days ; Benin, 

 four days. From his fondness for coral orna- 

 ments, I should imagine him to be of Benin 

 extraction : he is certainly of a very superior 

 breed to any we have yet met with. After a long 

 conversation, in which he naturally expressed his 

 surprise that we were not going to trade with 

 him for palm-oil, he presented us with a fowl 

 and some plantains, and we took our leave highly 

 pleased with our visit. Obie is decidedly the 

 most intelligent black man I have yet met with, 

 and far superior to those on the coast. On our 

 return through the town, we met a representation 

 of the devil, (white of course,) carrying before 



