THE WESTERN COAST. 
SOI 
on a disagreeable subject, he announces that the 
topic is too strong for him. The modern history 
of the Dahomans realizes all that history has re- 
corded of ancient Lacedemon, and of those Lace- 
demonians of the north, the inhabitants of Joins- 
burgh, who were forbidden to mention the name 
of Fear, even in the most imminent dangers, and 
who proudly declared that they would fight their 
enemies, though they were stronger than the Gods. 
Saxo relates, that when Frotho, king of Denmark, 
was taken prisoner in battle, he obstinately refused 
to accept of life, declaring, that the restoration of 
his kingdom and treasures could never restore his 
honour, but that future ages would ajways say, 
Frotho has been taken by his enemy. The palace 
of the king of Dahomy is an extensive building of 
bamboo and mud-walled huts, surrounded by a 
mud-wall about twenty feet high, inclosing a qua- 
drangular space of about a mile square. The en- 
trance to the king's apartment is paved with hu- 
man skulls, the lateral walls adorned with human 
jajw-bones, with a few bloody heads intermixed at 
intervals. The whole building resembles a num- 
ber of farm-yards, with long thatched barns and 
sheds for cattle, intersected with low mud-walls. 
On the thatched roofs, numerous human skulls are 
ranged at intervals, on small wooden stakes. In 
allusion to these, when the king issues orders for 
war, he only announces to his general, that his 
