PLACE OF EXECUTION. 29 



canoes two abreast when using their paddles, 

 which exceed six feet in length. This appears 

 to be the most effectual mode of using the pad- 

 dle, the position giving so much power over it. 

 The women of this place appear to have very- 

 fine skins ; the generality of them are stout, and 

 remarkably clean. 



In the afternoon. Lieutenant Allen and I went 

 ashore, where in a short time great numbers of 

 the natives flocked around us. At first they ap- 

 peared shy and wary ; but their timidity soon 

 wore off. The first thing that attracted our at- 

 tention was a pile of bones of some animal placed 

 as a fetish. A little further on, we were con- 

 ducted through a kind of glen, where there were 

 more bones, and a great number of jars piled one 

 above the other. On inquiry of our interpreter, 

 we learned that this was the place for the execu- 

 tion of malefactors, and that very lately two per- 

 sons had taken poison, or, as they expressed it, 

 drunk fetish water. This mode of punishment 

 appears very common in these parts of Africa. 

 When a person is suspected of having committed 

 a crime, he is compelled to swallow a strong dose 

 of vegetable poison. After this the culprit is led 

 about for an hour, and made to drink copiously 



