Chapter XIII

OF THE GRAND CUSTOMS AND THE ANNUAL CUSTOMS GENERALLY.

The word “Custom” is used to signify the cost or charges paid to the King at a certain season in the year. It is borrowed by us from our predecessors on the West African Coast—the old French—who wrote _coûtume_,[347] and the Portuguese _costume_, meaning habit or usage.

The Grand Customs[348] are performed only after the death of a king. They excel the annual rites in splendour and in bloodshed, for which reason the successor defers them till he has become sufficiently wealthy. The “History,” which was not written in the days of details, gives cursorily some terrible accounts of the slaughter and of the barbarities which accompanied it. “In the months of January, February, and March (1791), the ceremonies of the Grand Customs and of the King’s coronation took place; the ceremonies of which lasted the whole three months, and were marked almost every day with human blood.” Captain Fayrer, and particularly Mr. Hogg, Governor of Appolonia, were present; and both affirm that not fewer than five hundred men, women, and children fell “victims to revenge and ostentation, under the show of piety. Many more were expected to fall; but a sudden demand for slaves having thrown the lure of avarice before the King[349] he, like his ancestors, showed he was not insensible to its temptation.”

The curious reader will find at the end of the present work a paper by the Rev. Mr. Bernasko, who was present at the last Grand Customs performed in November, 1860, by the present sovereign, to honour the manes of his sire. Although the horrors of this rite were greatly exaggerated, with ridiculous adjuncts,[350] in Europe, it is clear that very little change has taken place, especially in the number of victims, during two-thirds of a century.

The yearly Customs were first heard of by Europe in the days of Agaja the Conqueror (1708-1727), although they had doubtless been practised many years before him. They form, in fact, continuations of the Grand Customs, and they periodically supply the departed monarch with fresh attendants in the shadowy world. They are called by the people Khwe-ta- nun, “The yearly head thing,” and Anun ’gbome[351] “Going to Agbome in the Dries.” The number of victims has been much swollen by report. Mr. James, at the beginning of the present century, found the maximum of three several years to be sixty-five. Commander Forbes, who writes feelingly, owns that, in the later years of King Gezo’s reign, not more than thirty-six heads fell. I have laid down a total of at most eighty during the time of my mission, and of these none, except the criminal part, was Dahoman.[352]

The season of the Customs, which combine carnival, general muster, and _lits de justice_, seems to comprise the whole year, except the epoch of the annual slave-hunts, here dignified by the name of “wars.” For instance, at present the King purposes to set out on his marauding expedition in February, and to return in March or April. He then lodges at the Jegbe Palace, “spreads a table” (in other words gives a banquet), and purchases the captives from his soldiery. The next move is to the country-quarters at Kana, where, about May, he will perform the Oyo Customs,[353] and then take his rest—a happy murderer. In November, when the rains are ended, he will summon his chiefs, sleep at the Adan-we Palace, and on the next day make a ceremonious entrance into his capital, like that which I have just described. This year various delays have put off the rites till December.

The annual Customs are of two kinds. The first—which happened, for instance, in 1862-63—is called Atto-ton-khwe, or the Atto[354] year, from the Atto, or platform, in the Ajyahi market, whence the victims are precipitated. Of its peculiarities we have sketches by Mr. Norris (1772) and M. Wallon (1856-58), finished descriptions and poor drawings by Commander Forbes (1849-50), and, later still, an official account by Commodore Wilmot.[355] The second is the So-sin-khwe (1863-64), the “Horse-tie year,” and the reason of the name will presently appear. As yet, no traveller has, I believe, described the ceremonies of the So- sin, which, however, differ but little from those of the Atto.

[Footnote 347: So Barbot (i. 4) speaks of _La coûtume_ (the tax) _de Parmier_.]

[Footnote 348: Dr. M‘Leod (p. 59) distinguishes them as double customs, opposed to single custom; but he is singular in this.]

[Footnote 349: Agongoro (Wheenoohew), the grandfather of the reigning sovereign.]

[Footnote 350: For instance, the Europe-wide report that the king floated a canoe and paddled himself in a tank full of human blood. It arose from the custom of collecting the gore of the victims in one or two pits about two feet deep and four in diameter. See Appendix III.]

[Footnote 351: Literally, anun (_in the_ dries _after the rains_), ’gbomen, for Agbomen (_we will go to_ Agbome). The other name is khwe (year), ta (head), nun (thing).]

[Footnote 352: So Mr. Duncan states. “The people thus sacrificed are generally prisoners of war, whom the king often sets aside for this purpose. . . . . Should there be any lack of these, the number is made up from the most convenient of his own subjects.” Such, however, is not, I believe, the custom now.]

[Footnote 353: See chap. vii.]

[Footnote 354: Pronounced Attaw. In the History there is mention of four platforms, raised stages of rough timber, covered with cloths and provided with seats for the King and his visitors. Gezo reduced the number to one, and his son has again excelled him by doubling it.]

[Footnote 355: See Appendix III.]