After The Business Of Ceremony Was Finished, He Laid Aside All Formality, And Conversed In A Familiar Manner Upon General Subjects, The Whole Party Joining Convivially In A Collation, Or Repast, Which Was Always Served Up On Such Occasions.

The government of Dahomy is, in the fullest sense of the word, despotism.

It is a monarchy the most unlimited and uncontrolled on the face of the earth, there being no law but the king's will, who may chop off as many heads as he pleases, when he is "i' the vein," and dispose of his subjects' property as he thinks fit, without being accountable to any human tribunal for his conduct. He has from three to four thousand wives, a proportion of whom, trained to arms, under female officers, constitute his body-guards. As may naturally be supposed, but a few of these wives engage his particular attention.

The successor to the throne is not announced during the king's lifetime; but the moment his decease is known, the proclamation is made with all possible despatch by the proper officers; for all is murder, anarchy, and confusion in the palace until it takes place; the wives of the late king not only breaking the furniture and ornaments, but killing each other, in order to have the honour of attending their husband to the grave.

The choice usually falls on the eldest son of the late sovereign's greatest favourite, provided there exists no particular reason for setting him aside. There seem to be no rank nor privileges annexed to any branches of the royal family; the king, in his own person, absorbing the undivided respect of the people.

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