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Thefe feveral publications affigned to Dr. WhicKcote a 

 tii<rh rank among the rational divines of this country, and 

 particularly at the period in which he lived. Biog. Brit. 



WHICKS, in ylgrici/iture, a term fometimes applied to 

 young plants of the white-thorn kind, as well as to couch- 

 grafs. See Quicks and Couch. 



WHIDAH, in Geography, a kingdom of Africa, on the 

 Slave Coaft ; extending about ten miles along the coaft, and 

 about feven miles into the land. Europeans who have been 

 in Whidah fpeak of the country with rapture, and extol it 

 as one of the moft beautiful in the world. The trees are 

 ftraight, tall, and difpofed in the moft regular order, which 

 prefent to the eye fine long groves and avenues, clear of all 

 brufh-wood and weeds. The verdure of the meadows, the 

 richnefs of the fields, clothed with three different kinds of 

 corn, beans, roots, and fruits, and the multitude of houfes, 

 form a moft dehghtful profpeft. A perpetual fpring and 

 autumn fucceed each other ; for no fooner has the hufband- 

 man cut his corn, than he again ploughs and fows the 

 ground ; yet it is not worn out ; the next crop puts forth 

 with the fame vigour as the former, as if nature here were 

 inexhauftible. Certain it is, that the kingdom of Whidah 

 is fo populous, that one fingle village contains as many in- 

 habitants as feveral entire kingdoms on the coaft of Guinea ; 

 and yet they ftand fo clofe, that one is amazed how the 

 moft fertile land on earth can fupply tlie number of people 

 contained in fo fmall a compafs. One may compare the 

 whole kingdom to a great city, divided by gardens, lawns, 

 and groves, inftead of ftreets, the villages in Whidah not 

 being a mulltet-ftiot diftant from each other. vSome are the 

 king's, fome the viceroy's villages, and others are built and 

 peopled by particular private famihes. The former are the 

 largeft and beft built ; but the latter the beft cultivated, if 

 there be any difference in a country fo uniformly rich and 

 beautiful. Notwithftanding the fmall extent of this king- 

 dom, it is divided into twenty-fix provinces, which take 

 their names from the capital towns. Thofe fmall ftates are 

 diftributed among the chief lords of the kingdom, and be- 

 come hereditary in their families. The kingof Whidah, who 

 is only their chief, prefides particularly in the province of 

 Sabi, or Xabier, which is the principal province of the 

 kingdom, as the city of the fame name is the capital of the 

 whole. Bujis, which the French by corruption call bauges, 

 pafs frequently for money at their fairs in"the country : this 

 is a fmall white fhell, of the fize and fhape of an ohve. In 

 the kingdom of Whidah and Ardra, thefe bujis ferve equally 

 for drefs and money, for ornament and ufe. They pierce 

 each fhell with an iron made for that purpofe ; forty of them 

 they ftring upon a cord, which they call fcuze, and the 

 Portuguefe toquos : five of thefe ftrings compofe what the 

 Portuguefe call a gallinha, and the Negroes a fore. By 

 thefe the exchange of gold-duft is rated, and the price of 

 flaves determined. The Europeans, the nobility of Whidah, 

 and all the rich negroes, are carried, when they go abroad, 

 in hammocs, or palanquins, on the ftiouldersof flaves. The 

 natives of Whidah are in general tall, well made, ftraight, 

 and robuft. Their complexion is black, but not fo glofly 

 as that of the people on the Gold Coaft, and ftill lefs than 

 thofe of Senegal and the river Gambia. They excel all other 

 negroes in induftry and vigilance. Idlenefs is the favourite 

 vice of the Africans in general ; here, on the contrary, both 

 fexes are fo laborious and diligent, that they never delift till 

 they have finifhed their undertaking ; carrying the fame fpi- 

 rit of perfeverance into every attion of their life. Befides 

 agriculture, from which none but the king and a few per- 

 /ons of the firlt diftinSion are exempted, they employ 



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themfelves in feveral kinds of manufaftures : they fpin cotton- 

 yarn, weave fine cotton cloths, make calabaffes, wooden 

 vefTels, plates, and difhes ; hkewife affagayes, and fmiths'- 

 work in greater perfeftion than any other people on the 

 coaft. Whilft the men are thus employed, the women 

 brew plto, and drefs provifions, which, with their huf- 

 bands' merchandize, they carry for fale to market. As to 

 religion, Bofman is of opinion, that the piety of this country 

 is founded upon no other principles than thofe of intereft 

 and fuperftition. In the latter, they exceed all other nations ; 

 for allowing, fays he, the ancient heathens to value them- 

 felves upon thirty thoufand deities, I dare venture to afErm 

 that the natives of Whidah may lay juft claim to four times 

 that number. However, he believes that they have a faint 

 idea of the one true God, to whom they attribute omnipo- 

 tence and ubiquity. One of their principal fetiches, or 

 deities, is the fnake, which they invoke in extrene wet, dry, 

 or barren feafons, on all occafions relating to thei- rovern- 

 ment, civil policy, and cattle ; in a word, on all the great 

 difficulties and occurrences of life. This fnake has a largt 

 round head, beautiful piercing eyes, a fhort pointed tongue, 

 refembling a dart : its pace flow and folemn, except when 

 it feizes on its prey, then quick and rapid ; its tail fharp and 

 fhort, its fliin of an elegant fmoothnefs, adorned with beau- 

 tiful colours, upon a light-grey ground. It is amazingly 

 tame and familiar, permitting itfelf to be approached, and 

 even handled : they have a mortal antipathy to all venomous 

 ferpents : they attack them wherever they find them, as if 

 they had pleafure in delivering mankind from their poifon. 

 The Europeans find no difficulty in familiarizing themfelves 

 to thefe inoffenfive animals, with which they play without 

 any dread or apprehenfion of danger. There is no fear of 

 miftaking them for the poifonous ferpents, the colour and fize 

 fufficiently diftinguifhing them. The negroes entertain a 

 notion that the firft progenitor of this race of fnakes is ftill 

 living, and growing to an enormous bulk. When the 

 Englifh firft fettled in Whidah, the captain having unfhipped 

 his goods on fhore, the failors found at night one of thofe 

 fnakes in their magazine, which they ignorantly killed, and 

 threw upon the bank, without dreaming of any bad confe- 

 quences. Tlie negroes, who foon difcovered the facrilege, 

 and had it confirmed by the acknowledgment of the Eng- 

 lifh mariners, were not long in avenging the horrid impiety, 

 by a method no lefs horrible. All the inhabitants of the 

 province aflembled ; they attacked the Englifh, maffacred 

 them all to a man, and confumed their bodies and goods in 

 the fire they had fet to the warehoufe. Animals of all 

 kinds are punifhed with death for injuring a fnake. In 1697, 

 a hog having had the prefumption to deftroy one of thefe 

 deities, an order was iffued for a general flaughter of fwine 

 throughout the kingdom, and the deftruftion of the whole 

 race was hardly prevented by the interpofition of the 

 king. 



Whidah, a town of Africa, in the country of Whidah. 

 N. lat. 6° 25'. E. long. 1° 24'. 



WHIDBY's Island, an ifland in the Gulf of Georgia, 

 near the weft coaft of America ; about 36 miles long, and 

 from 2 to 6 broad : fo named from Mr. Whidby, an officer 

 under captain Vancouver. N. lat. 48° 10'. E. long. 237° 

 40'. 



WHIDDY, an ifland in Bantry bay, in the county of 

 Cork, Ireland, about 2 miles from the town of Bantry. It 

 is a pleafant ifland of a triangular form, and the foil is ex- 

 cellent. 



WHIFF, in Ichthyology, the name of a fort of flounder. 



WHIFFLER of a Company, in London, a young free- 

 man. 



