ordee, he went to
the prince's house, and after waiting for some time in the porch of a
square tower, they were introduced into an inner coozee, hung round
with blue and yellow silk, in sharp-pointed festoons, not unlike
gothic arches. Ateeko soon made his appearance, and after a few
compliments, they proceeded to business. He brought out a damaged
leathern trunk, with two or three shirts, and other articles of
dress, much the worse for wear, and the sextant and parchment already
mentioned. The former was completely demolished, the whole of the
glasses being taken out, or, where they could not unscrew them,
broken off the frame, which remained a mere skeleton. Ateeko seemed
to fancy that the sextant was gold, in which Clapperton soon
undeceived him; and selecting it, with the parchment and one or two
flannel waistcoats and towels, likely to be useful to Major Denham,
he offered the prince five thousand kowries, at which he appeared
much surprised and mortified. El Wordee whispered into Clapperton's
ear, "Remember he is a prince, and not a merchant." But Clapperton
said, loud enough for his highness to hear, "Remember, that when a
prince turns merchant, he must expect no more than another man; and
as that is the value of the articles, it is a matter of indifference
to me whether I buy them or not." Ateeko frequently repeated his
belief of the sextant being gold; but at length the bargain seemed to
be concluded, and Clapperton requested the prince to send a slave to
his house with the articles he had picked out, to whom also he would
pay the money. The slave, however, was recalled before he got
half-way, and his suspicious master took back the sextant-frame, in
dread of being overreached by the purchaser in its value, which
Clapperton did not fail to deduct from the price agreed on.

The prince stated, that he kept two hundred civet cats, two of which
he showed Clapperton. These animals were extremely savage, and were
confined in separate wooden cages. They were about four feet long
from the nose to the tip of the tail, and, with the exception of a
greater length of body and a longer tail, they very much resembled
diminutive hyenas. They are fed with pounded guinea corn and dried
fish made into balls. The civet is scraped off with a kind of muscle
shell every other morning, the animal being forced into a corner of
the cage, and its head held down with a stick during the operation.
The prince offered to sell any number of