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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His Majesty Hinted That One
Journey Was Well And Fully Employed In Seeing The Kingdom Of Youriba,
And Paying The Required Homage To Its Potent Monarch.
It is curious how etiquette forms a part of every court, from a
latitude of 52 deg.
North, to one almost immediately under the equator,
and it must be admitted that if a school of instruction were
established at the former one, wherein the debutants might perfect
themselves in their various gestures and attitudes, we should not
behold such a number of awkward louts, and johnny raw's, as exhibit
themselves at the levee room of the king of the Guelphs. In the
capital of Eyeo, it is the custom of the court, for the monarch to
hold a levee twice a day, at six in the morning, and two in the
afternoon; rather hot work for the courtiers, perspiring in a
temperature of about 120 deg.. The son of a Highland clansman, or of an
Irish bogtrotter, is ushered into the presence of his sovereign with
very little preliminary instruction; not so however with the more
refined and polished court of Katunga. There, before the legitimate
or illegitimate sons of royalty and nobility, or even of the
plebeians are introduced to the king, they are required to wait upon
the chief eunuch, a kind of African lord chamberlain, and before whom
they are required to practise their prostrations and genuflexions, so
as not to commit themselves in the presence of their august monarch.
The finished courtier at the court of the Guelphs, is known by the
grace with which he seizes the hand of royalty, to imprint upon it a
slobbering kiss; and the caboceer at the court of Katunga, is known
by the grace with which he covers himself with dust, and the
intensity of his homage is estimated according to the quantity of the
article which he throws over himself. It must have been a delectable
treat for the Europeans to have been present at one of these
academies of court etiquette, where the old and young were practising
their prostrations before the ugly antiquated eunuch, and who
hesitated not to give his pupils a kick, when any of them evinced an
extraordinary awkwardness in their attitudes. During the whole of the
time that the prostrations were practising, the attendants were
dancing in a circle, with now and then the interlude of a minuet by
one of the performers, in the course of which he would frequently
throw a somerset, as expert as old Grimaldi, and all this under a
burning tropical sun. These caboceers were dressed in robes of
leopard skin, hung round with tassels and chains, and in a short time
afterwards about twenty of them, in all their dirt and debasement,
stretched at full length before the king, stripped to the waist, and
vying with each other, which should have the most dust, and kiss the
ground with the greatest fervour. When any one speaks to the king, it
must be addressed to him through the eunuch, who is prostrated by the
side of his master.
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