the boys are always active in throwing in, for the curiosity of visitors, who stand below, and see each object invariably carried aloft with the cataract, in its rebounding atmospheric gambols. When the sun is in the right position, the rainbows play about the fall like the glancing of supernatural wings, as if angels were taking a showerbath. If you have "the head and legs of a chamois," you may climb entirely above this magnificent scene, and look out over the cliff right down into the point where the cataract shoots like the lightning, to be again shot back in ten thousand branching jets of diamonds.

ANTIQUE WATCH.

The engraving below represents a fancy silver watch of the time of Queen Elizabeth. It is shaped like a duck; the feathers chased. The lower part opens, and the

studs, as represented in the wood-cut below. It forms one of the curiosities in the Museum of Lord Londesborough.

WARWICK THE KING MAKER.

On the right-hand side of Newgate-street are various streets and courts leading into Paternoster-row. Of these, Warwick and Ivy lanes, Panyer-alley, and Lovel's-court, merit the attention of the lover of literary and historical antiquities. Warwick-lane, now the abode of butchers and tallow-chandlers, took its name from the inn or house of the celebrated Warwick, the king-maker.

Stow mentions his coming to London in the famous convention of 1458, with 600 men, all in red jackets, embroidered, with ragged staves, before and behind, and was lodged in Warwick-lane; "in whose house there was often six oxen eaten at a breakfast, and every taverne was full of his meate,

house, might have there so much of sodden and roast meat, as he could prickan d carry upon a long dagger."

dial plate, which is also of silver, is en- | for hee that had any acquaintance in that circled with a gilt ornamental design of floriated scrolls and angels' heads. The wheels work on small rubies. It has no maker's name. It is preserved in the original case of thin brass, covered with black leather, and ornamented with silver

The memory of the earl was long preserved by a small stone statue, placed in the side front, at the corner of this lane.

After the third victim had thus been sacrificed, the king retired, and the chiefs and slave dealers completed the deed which the monarch blushed to finish. There was not even the poor excuse that these men had committed a crime, or even borne arms against the Dahomans."

succeeded in saving the lives of three. | father and grandfather had done before. Lashed as we have already described, These were Attahpahms. Having called these sturdy men met the gaze of their their names, the one nearest was divested persecutors with a firmness perfectly of his clothes, the foot of the basket astonishing. Not a sigh was breathed. placed on the parapet, when the king In all my life I never saw such coolness gave the upper part an impetus, and the so near death. It did not seem real, yet victim fell at once into the pit beneath. it soon proved frightfully so. One mon- A fall of upwards of twelve feet might ster placed his finger to the eyes of a have stunned him, and before sense could victim who hung down his head, but, return the head was cut off, and the body finding no moisture, drew upon himself thrown to the mob, who, now armed with the ridicule of his fiendish coadjutors. clubs and branches, brutally mutilated Ten of the human offerings to the blood- and dragged it to a distant pit, where it thirsty mob, and an alligator and a cat, was left as food for the beasts and birds were guarded by soldiers, the other four of prey. by amazons. In the meantime, the king returned, and, calling us from our seats at the further end of the platform, asked if we would wish to witness the sacrifice. With horror we declined, and begged to be allowed to save a portion of them. After some conversation with his courtiers, seeing him wavering, I offered him a hundred dollars each for the first and last of the ten; while, at the same time, my friend, Mr. Beecroft, made a similar offer for the first of the four, which was accepted, and the three were immediately unlashed from their precarious position, but forced to remain spectators of the horrid deed to be done on their less fortunate countrymen. The king insisted on our viewing the place of sacrifice. Immediately under the royal stand, within the brake of acacia bushes, stood seven or eight fell ruffians, some armed with clubs, others with scimetars, grinning horribly. As we approached, the mob yelled fearfully, and called upon the king to feed them-they were hungry.' It was at a similar exhibition that Achardee (President of Jena), while looking into the pit with the king, was seized, thrown down, and murdered on the spot. Disgusted beyond the powers of description, we retired to our seats.

"As we regained our seats, a fearful yell rent the air. The victims were held high above the heads of their bearers, and the naked ruffians thus acknowledged the munificence of their prince. Silence again ruled, and the king made a speech, stating that of his prisoners he gave a portion to his soldiers, as his

In 1849, thirty-two victims were sacrificed at the "customs;" in 1848, two hundred and forty.

The rulers who thus practise cruelty for the amusement of their subjects are such as naturally indulge in blood for their own delight. The miegan, first dignitary and chief executioner, is a paragon of ferocity. He not unfrequently executes prisoners with his own hands. and evidently to his great delight, says Lieutenant Bouet. At these executions, especially those which take place at night, unspeakable horrors are enacted. Fetish men, preceded by drums and bells, march round and round the palace, shortly before the hour of sunset. At this well known signal the people fly into their houses, for it is death to be seen in the streets. Then, when darkness has fallen, shrieks and groans are heard rending the night. These are the cries of the wretched victims who are led round the palace by torchlight, and subjected to torture, as a prelude to death. Shortly before daylight their cries cease, one by one; at sunrise all is over; and new heads are set up to garnish the walls and other public places. The dead atmosphere is lifted from the city; the inhabitants creep fearfully into the streets, and led by curiosity, and by love of blood too,

perhaps, go to contemplate the newly decorated walls of the palace.

Lieutenant Bouet had the honour of an interview with the miegan, at his own house. He says "I could scarcely refrain from laughing at the terror exhibited by my palankeen bearers, and of all who accompanied me, on crossing the dread threshold. This, however, was easily explained; for the mayo never enters that house himself, unless obliged to do so; for the old rascal, who has probably some peccadilloes on his conscience, is never certain of leaving it alive. The residence of the miegan is very vast, containing many secret chambers and subterranean cells, from which groans are heard and sudden cries of distress. On leaving the house, my palankeen bearers moved with an agility that I never noticed on any previous occasion."

and on meeting any of these sable beauties on the road, a bell warns the wayfarer to turn off, or stand against a wall while they pass. The king has thousands of wives, the nobles hundreds, others tens; while the soldier is unable to support one."

The laws are very strict, theft and even cowardice being punished with death. "Taxes are heavy to all parties, and farmed to collectors. The holders of the 'customs' have collectors stationed at all markets, who receive 'cowries' in number according to the value of the goods carried for sale. Besides these, there are collectors on all public roads leading from one district to another, and on the lagoon on each side of Whydah, the single port; in short, everything is taxed, and the tax goes to the king. If a cock crows in the highway, it is forIfeited to the tax gatherer, and, conseBut Gueza, the king, is the arch quently, on the whole distance from tyrant and murderer. "In the royal Abomey, the capital, to Whydah, the presence no rank is free from prostration cocks are muzzled. On the lagoon and and the throwing dirt on the head, ex-public roads, there are toll gates, at which cept white men, and a certain class of a custom duty is demanded. These, with necromancers, who regulate sacrifices to the annual presents at the 'customs,' the divert epidemics, and other evils: these tithe on palm oil of one gallon out of people wear hats, and only bow to the eighteen, and the duties on foreign trade, throne. The liberated Africans and re- form the legal revenue of his Dahoman turned slaves are considered as white majesty. The every day life of a Dahomen; and while the king's ministers are man it would be a difficult matter to prostrate in the dust they merely bow. describe, depending as it does on the In the royal presence none may smoke whim of the sovereign. Should a man but white men; and in the precincts of inherit industrious habits, he must be the palace, or the grand fetish houses, very cautious in developing them, lest he none but whites may remain covered, fall under the suspicion of the governand none may be carried or ride, or be ment. If he brings more soil under culshaded by an umbrella, unless by the tivation, or in any manner advances his king's permission. If the king's stick be family to riches, without the license of shown, all bow down and kiss the dust the king, he not only endangers his forexcept the bearer, who is exempt. In tune, but his own life and the lives of entering a town or house the head man his family; instead of becoming a man of presents the stranger with pure water, property and head of a family, he is conwhich he first drinks himself; and this is demned to slavery; and, serving his equivalent to a promise of safety. It is majesty or his ministers, assists unwilcustomary each morning to exchange lingly to uphold the laws that have compliments with sticks or seals, or other ruined him, his only alternative being articles of virtù, which may be known as death." the individual's representative; and each stick bearer receives a glass of rum! The royal wives and their slaves are considered too sacred for man to gaze upon;

A pretty picture this of manners and customs! The Dahoman cities appear to be equally disgusting. Drawing again on Forbes's narrative, we read: