STRANGE CUSTOMS OF SAVAGE RULERS. 
275 
passed, and also a description of the Congoese, the people dwelling 
in that part of Africa. 
At one time there was no more famous kingdom in all Africa 
than that of Congo. It was established on even a grander scale 
than the modern Ashanti or Dahomey, which have sprung up within 
the last 200 years, during which the empire of Congo has been 
broken up into many petty chieftaincies. The writings of the old 
Jesuit and Capuchin Fathers teem with tales of its grandeur. 
When the king was elected he came out of the palace, glorious 
in trinkets, to give the benediction to his people, assembled from 
far and near in the palace square, for this important event. The 
priests and nobles arranged themselves around him. The king- 
exhorted the people to be faithful and obedient, and, after the man¬ 
ner of monarchs generally, assured his subjects of his profound 
consideration. “He rises, and all the people prostrate themselves 
before him. He stretches his hands over them, and makes gestures 
with his fingers without uttering a word.’’ Shouts of joy, followed 
by firing of muskets and a “jubilee of banquets,” close this initiatory 
event of the Congo monarch’s reign. . 
WHIMS OF A TYRANT. 
The king was a despot, secretly controlled by his ministers. 
His civil list consisted of tribute paid him by the sub-chiefs or vassal- 
lords, who in their turn ground it out of the people. When he found 
it necessary to levy a special tax, he would go out of the palace with 
his cap loosely placed on his head. When the wind blew it ofif, he 
would rush into the house as if in a great passion, and immediately 
order the levy of goats, fowls, slaves, and palm-wine. The Negro 
is a systematic creature in some things; he does nothing without 
a reason, and the Congoese monarch, therefore, considered that he 
had justified his acts in the eyes of his subjects by his dignity being 
offended owing to his cap blowing off. 
One of the taxes was levied on beds—a slave for every span’s 
breadth being the rate at which the impost was made. This tax 
was devoted to the support of the king’s concubines, and as a broad 
bed entailed considerable expense on its owner, the possession of 
