RESIDENCE AT KATUNGA. 
51 
had finished our bullock that he gave us, we had nothing to eat. 
He replied, we must go to the caboceers. I told him I would do 
no such thing; that we did not come here to beg. He said 1 was 
mistaken; it was not begging; they were all his slaves, and what 
they possessed belonged to him. 1 requested, however, that he 
should send orders to them direct from himself. After a little 
time he left us : but the eunuch remained; and showing symptoms 
of sauciness I turned him out of the house. 
Friday, 17th. — Morning clear and cool, with fresh harmattan 
breezes. A great number of people arrived to-day from different 
parts of the country to pay their annual custom and visit to the 
king. 
Saturday, 18th. — Morning clear and cold; a strong harmattan 
still blowing. The religion of the people of Yourriba, as far as I 
could comprehend it, consists in the worship of one God, to whom 
they offer sacrifices of horses, cows, sheep, goats, and fowls. At 
the yearly feast all these animals are sacrificed at the fetish house, 
in which a little of the blood is spilt on the ground. The whole of 
them are then cooked; and the king and all the people, men and 
women, attending, partake of the meat, which they are said to eat 
in a state of nakedness, and in company, drinking at the same time 
copiously of country ale, or pitto ; but it is also said, that the least 
attempt at indecency would be punished with death. 
It is stated, moreover, that it depends on the will of the fetish 
man or priest whether a human being, or a cow, or other animal 
is to be sacrificed. If a human being, it is always a criminal, and 
only one. The usual spot where the feast takes place is in a large 
open field before the king’s house, under wide spreading trees, 
where there are two or three fetish houses. This account I had 
from a native of Bornou, a Mahometan, and a slave to the ca- 
boceer of Jannah. 
Monday, 20th. — -The morning cool. The harmattan still con- 
ii 2 
