Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1898 — AFRICAN KINGS. [ARTICLE]

AFRICAN KINGS.

What a French Traveler Saw ia Dahomey and Porto Nova. M. Paul Mimande has recently paid, a visit to two dusky potentates ruling, under French control, In West Africa, and gives a description of his experiences in L'lllustration. Aqo-U-Aqbo, the King of Dahomey, according to the writer, is a decidedly antijiathetlc personage. His majesty is a large, stout negro, with a broad, flat nose, and a sly, treacherous expression. Ou ceremonial occasions he wears a sort of toga covered with some spaugled material. This costume, although sufficiently absurd, has the advantage of being simple and inexpensive. Aqo-li-Aqbo is vain aud fond of display; 'but unhappily the royal purse Is depleted, and he cannot gratify his luxurious tastes. Too poor to maintain the royal stables, he lias been obliged to abandon driving about in the berlin which his predecessor enjoyed, aud in his kyortifleatiou hit upon a happy expedient which is characteristic. He caused a small vehicle to be built, something like the wagons in which peddlers hawk their goods to country fairs, and in deficiency of horses conferred upon his ministers the honor of dragging it. The ministers play their part •to perfection; they trot along rapidly a; at even pace, and, the drive over, resume their posts as the confidential friends and advisers of their sovereign. Aqo-li-Aqbo lias had the honor. M. Paul Mlmande declares, of realizing practically for the first time the conception of the chariot of state, which has hitherto been regarded as merely an abstraction. The King of Dahomey has 300 wives, and lives in the old palace of Sambodji, which formerly witnessed so many human sacrifices, the very walls only it short time ago being garnished with skulls. He lias no longer any power either to behead or crucify, and contents himself with smoking, drinking, and courtship. Toffia, the King of Porto Nova, is n mucti more wealthy and powerful monarch. Indeed, since Solomon, it is a question whether lie has had Ills peer. Toffa has a full treasury, 500 wives, and concubines ad libitum, who never address him save on their knees, subjects who prostrate themselves at Ills approach, and children more numerous than those of Priam. He is a man of about 50, black as the ace of spades, with small, but keen, piercing eyes, and is very subtle and iutelligent. When he appears In his royal costume, a splendid robe embroidered with gold, a helmet with a tufted plume, his arms loaded with bracelets and bls breasts starred with amulets, he produces an extraordinary and very contradictory impression—that of grotesqueness combined with real dignity. Toffa’s palace is a handsome wooden structure not unlike the eoqmtrj- seat of a well-to-do middle-class Englishman. A long avenue of trees leads up to it, and the inclosure in which it stands is surrounded by a wall, with an Immense entrance gate, which, for the most part, is hospitably open. It is evident that the King is beloved by his subjects and is in no fear of anarchists and dynamiters. His manner of receiving Europeon visitors is novel. Toffa sits upon his tliroue in-the reception hall, surrounded by his counselors and members of the household. The foreigners are Introduced. A bottle of champagne is brought, and the three principal officials of the kingdom come forward to open it. One takes the bottle, the second the corkscrew, and the third the glasses. Their faces are /grave; they feel the responsibility of their Important office. When the glasses are filled the King rises. This Is (the supreme moment. The courtiers prostrate themselves face downward; his majesty clicks his glass with those of his guests, and they drink in silence. The ceremony over, Toffa resumes his seat and strikes the floor with his cane, the signal for the courtiers to rise. On hearing it they start up, snapping their fingers like castanets.—Public Opinion.