THE WESTERN COAST. 
" satisfied with this we worship." The Daho- 
mans manufacture and dye cotton cloth, and form 
a species of cloth of palm-leaves. They are tole- 
rably skilful in working in metals. The bards, 
who celebrate the exploits of the king and his ge- 
nerals, are likewise the historians of the country. 
Their historical poems, which are rehearsed on so- 
lemn occasions, occupy several days in the recital. 
These may probably compare with the legends of 
Ossian, and of the Irish, Gaelic, and Welsh bards. 
It is probable that the legends of Dahomy are 
equally authentic with these ; for, in every rude 
age, it is the interest of the bards not to touch up- 
on subjects too strong for their respective chiefs. 
The Persian Hafez would have been put to death 
by Tamerlane, merely for preferring, like a true 
inamorato, the charms of his mistress to the gold 
of Bokhara, and the gems of Samarcand, had he 
not saved himself by an ingenious quibble, to prove 
a various reading. How much authentic history 
may we then derive from oral and poetical le- 
gends ! t The Dahomans, though they do not use 
human flesh as an article of food, yet devour the 
flesh of human victims as a religious ceremony, at 
their solemn feasts ; and their ancient practice seems 
to be marked by their ordinary phrase of eating their 
enemies, by which they denote taking them alive. 
Though the martial genius of the Dahomans re- 
mains unaltered, their military exploits have not 
VOL. TI. U 
