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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The King Of Youriba's Boast Was,
That His Wives, Linked Hand-In-Hand, Would Reach Entirely Across The
Kingdom.
Queens, however, in Africa, are applied to various uses,
although in some countries at some distance to the northward,
It is a
difficult question to solve, whether they be of any use at all,
except for the purpose of entailing an extraordinary expense upon the
people, who have to labour hard for the support of the royal
appendage, which is generally imported from a neighbouring country,
where pride, pauperism, and pomposity are particularly conspicuous.
It would be well for an admirer of queenship to take a trip to Eyeo,
to see to what uses queens can be applied; for there they are formed
into a body-guard, and their majesties were observed, in every part
of the kingdom, acting as porters, and bearing on their heads
enormous burdens, in which they again differ from the queens of the
more northern countries, where, fortunately for the natives of it,
they never bear at all. The queens of Eyeo are, to all intents and
purposes, slaves, and so are also other queens; but then they are
slaves to foolish and ridiculous customs, to stiff starched
etiquette, and to ceremonies degrading to a rational being.
The Eyeos, like other nations purely negro, are wholly unacquainted
with letters, or any form of writing; these are known only to the
Arabs or Fellatahs, who penetrate thither in small numbers; yet they
have a great deal of popular poetry.
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