These daboas arc taken care of in the most
pious manner, and well fed on rats, mice, or birds, in their fetish
houses or temples, where the people attend to pay their adoration,
and where those also who are sick or lame apply for assistance.
The tiger is also an object of religious regard in Dahomy Proper; but
they deem it the safest mode of worship to perform their acts of
devotion to his skin only after death, which is stuffed for that
purpose.
The people of Whidah occasionally imagine themselves inspired by the
divinity, or, as they term it, are seized by the fetish; and in such
cases, it becomes necessary, from the frantic manner in which they
run about, to secure and place them under the charge of the
fetisheers, or priests, until this fit of inspiration be over, and
they become themselves again.
The political management of Whidah is entrusted to a viceroy, who is
called the Yavougah, or captain of the white men. This officer, at
the time of Lander's visit to the country, was a man of majestic
stature, and possessed an uncommon share of dignity, mingled with
complacency of manner.
