Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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Each Of Its Sides
Was Formed By Huts, Which Had All At One Time Been Inhabited, But A
Fire Having Broken Out In One Of Them By Some Accident, The Greater
Part Perished.
A few huts were only then standing, together with
black, naked walls, and stakes, which supported the verandahs, the
latter reduced to charcoal.
The tenantable buildings were inhabited
by the female slaves of the owner of the square, and the travellers
and their suite.
It is the custom in this place, when a governor dies, for two of his
favourite wives to quit the world on the same day, in order that he
may have a little, pleasant, social company in a future state; but
the late governor's devoted wives had neither ambition nor
inclination to follow their venerable husband to the grave, not
having had or got, according to their opinion, enough of the good
things of this world; they therefore went, and hid themselves before
the funeral ceremonies were performed, and had remained concealed
ever since with the remainder of their women. On this, day, however,
one of these unfortunates, the individual to whom the house belonged,
which the travellers resided, was discovered in her hiding place at
the present governor's, and the alternative of a poisoned chalice, or
to have her head broken by the club of a fetish priest, was offered
her. She chose the former mode of dying, as being the less terrible
of the two; and she, on this morning, came to their yard, to spend
her last hours in the society of her faithful slaves, by whom she was
addressed by the endearing name of mother. Poor creatures! as soon as
they learnt her misfortune, they dropped their spinning; the grinding
of corn was also relinquished; their sheep, goats, and poultry were
suffered to roam at large without restraint, and they abandoned
themselves to the most excessive and poignant grief; but now, on the
arrival of their mistress, their affliction seemed to know no bounds.
There is not to be found in the world perhaps, an object more truly
sorrowful, than a lonely defenceless woman in tears; and on such an
occasion as this, it may very easily be conceived that the distress
was more peculiarly cutting. A heart that could not be touched at a
scene of this nature, must be unfeeling indeed. Females were arriving
the whole day, to condole with the old lady, and to weep with her, so
that the travellers neither heard nor saw any thing but sobbing and
crying from morning to the setting of the sun. The principal males in
the town likewise came to pay their last respects to their mistress,
as well as her grave-digger, who prostrated himself on the ground
before her. Notwithstanding the representations and remonstrances of
the priest, and the prayers of the venerable victim to her gods, for
fortitude to undergo the dreadful ordeal, her resolution forsook her
more than once. She entered the yard twice to expire in the arms of
her women, and twice did she lay aside the fatal draught, in order to
take another walk, and gaze once more on the splendour of the sun and
the glory of the heavens, for she could not bear the idea of losing
sight of them forever. She was for some time restless and uneasy, and
would gladly have run away from death, if she durst; for that
imaginary being appeared to her in a more terrible light, than our
pictures represent him with his shadowy form and fatal dart. Die she
must, and she knew it; nevertheless she tenaciously clung to life
till the very last moment. In the mean time her grave was preparing,
and preparations were making for a wake at her funeral. She was to be
buried in one of her own huts, the moment after the spirit had
quitted the body, which was to be ascertained by striking the ground
near which it might be lying at the time, when, if no motion or
struggle ensued, the old woman was to be considered as dead. The
poison used by the natives on these occasions, destroys life, it is
reported, in fifteen minutes.
The reason of the travellers not meeting with a better reception when
they slept at Laatoo, was the want of a chief to that town, the last
having followed the old governor of Jenna, to the eternal shades, for
he was his slave. Widows are burnt in India, just as they are
poisoned or clubbed at Jenna, but in the former country no male
victims are destroyed on such occasions. The original of the
abominable custom at Jenna, of immolating the favourite wives, is
understood to have arisen from the dread on the part of the chiefs of
the country in olden times, that their principal wives, who alone
were in possession of their confidence, and knew where their money
was concealed, might secretly attempt their life, in order at once to
establish their own freedom, and become possessed of the property;
that, so far from entertaining any motive to destroy her husband, a
woman might on the contrary have a strong inducement to cherish him
as long as possible, the existence of the wife was made to depend
entirely on that of her lord, and this custom has been handed down
from father to son even to the present time. But why men also, who
can have no interest to gain on the death of their prince, should be
obliged to conform to the same rite, is not to be so easily accounted
for. The individual, who was governor of Jenna at the time of the
visit of the Landers, must of necessity go down to the grave on the
first intelligence of the demise of the king of Youriba, and as that
monarch was a very aged man, the situation of the former was not the
most enviable in the world.
Previously to her swallowing the poison, the favourite wife of a
deceased chief or ruler destroys privately all the wealth, or rather
money of her former partner, in order that it may not fall into the
hands of her successor.
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