rious instruments of agriculture. The price of a small goat
is from 1,500 to 2,000 kowries; 2,000 kowries being equal to a
Spanish dollar; a large sheep, 3,000 to 5,000; a cow, from 20,000 to
30,000; a horse, 80,000 to 100,000; a prime human being, as a slave,
40,000 to 60,000, about half the price of a horse!

The kingdom of Youriba extends from Puka, within five miles of the
coast to about the parallel of 10 deg. N., being bounded by Dahomy on the
north-west, Ketto and the Maha countries on the north, Borgoo on the
north-east, the Quorra to the east, Accoura, a province of Benin, to
the south-east, and Jaboo to the south-west. These are the positions
of the neighbouring countries, as given by Lander, although it is
difficult to reconcile them with the map; Borgoo seems rather to be
north-east, Dahomy west and southwest, Jaboo and Benin south-east.
If Badagry be included in Youriba, the southern boundary will be the
Bight of Benin.

Dahomy, Alladah, Maha, and Badagry were claimed as tributaries; and
the king of Benin was referred to as an ally. The government is an
hereditary despotism, every subject being the slave of the king; but
its administration appears to have been for a long period mild and
humane. When the king was asked, whether the customs of Youriba
involved the same human sacrifices as those of Dahomy, his majesty
shook his head, shrugged up his shoulders, and exclaimed, "No, no! no
king of Youriba could sacrifice human beings." He added, but probably
without sufficient grounds for the vaunt, that, if he so commanded,
the king of Dahomy must also desist from the practice; that he must
obey him. It is, however, stated, on the authority of Lander, that
when a king of Youriba dies, the caboceer of Jannah, three other head
caboceers, four women, and a great many favourite slaves and women,
are obliged to swallow poison, given by fetish men in a parrot's egg;
should this not take effect, the person is provided with a rope to
hang himself in his own house. No public sacrifices are used, at
least no human sacrifices, and no one was allowed to die at the death
of the last king, as he did not die a natural death, having been
murdered by one of his own sons, though the religion of the people of
Youriba, as far as it could be comprehended by the travellers,
consisted in the worship of one God, to whom they also sacrifice
horses, cows, goats, sheep, and fowls. At the yearly feast, all these
animals are sacrificed at