of the dancers, you will find the exact similitude of a dance in Negroland :

'And, further on, a group of Grecian girls

(The first and tallest her white kerchief waving)
Were strung together like a row of pearls ;

Linked hand in hand, and dancing; each, too, having
Down her white neck long floating auburn curls-
The least of which would set ten poets raving:
Their leader sang-and bounded to her song,

With choral step and voice, the virgin throng.'

“As to the charms, in the mean time," continued Mr. Hartley," of the Negro vocal music, when, upon other occasions than these, it is heard at a distance, in the midst of solitary woods, it has the most plaintive and pleasing effect, equalling in softness any that I have heard in more civilized countries. I and others have lain awake in our tents, at night, for hours together, listening to its mild and melancholy tones. Once, at the visit of a chief, accompanied by about fifty of his wives, and the party stationing themselves at a short distance from us, the women struck up a native tune, which they sung loudly and with much feeling; indeed, with a solemnity and pathos that reminded all of us of the most impressive sacred music of our native Europe. As soon as the voices of the females had ceased, an instrumental band played a lively air, in which, again, the former, were occasionally joined; but, though the Negroes are as fond, or even more so, of instrumental, than of vocal music, I must acknowledge that they have no native instruments, except very vile ones."

"These are pleasing pictures, I confess," said Mr. Paulett," of Negro life in Africa; and, as vocal music, in man, as in the birds, depends only upon

natural capacities, it ought not, perhaps, so much to surprise us, to discover, that, in truth, it begins among the rudest nations, and only descends from them to the more refined. I have always heard (I think) the voices of the women, among the American Indians, the South Sea Islanders, and every people like them, exceedingly extolled. But have the Negroes other arts, in any degree of excellence ?"

"In this respect, you must distinguish the Negro nations from many others in Africa, which latter are properly pastoral nations, and very ignorant of the arts. But the Negroes live in cities, towns, and villages; build temples and bridges; cultivate the earth, hold markets, and pursue traffic; and among these are several useful, as well as even elegant arts. They tan, dye, and work in iron; their smiths are surprisingly skilful in their profession; but, though hundreds of these latter are scattered over the country, it is still evidence that their art is far from common, that they are held in distinguished respect, and treated with the utmost deference by every rank. These ironsmiths of Africa, like the goldsmiths of the East, execute the finest and most curious works with great celerity; and with so few and such clumsy tools and conveniences, as leaves a European in amazement at their success. But thus it has been in all these ancient countries, from the most ancient times."

"Their smiths, then, are their most able artisans ?" inquired Mr. Paulett.

"By no means," returned his friend: "their leather is tanned and dressed, as well, if not much better, than leather of English manufacture. The variety of their dyes, and the exquisite colours which they give to their cottons, have always been the subjects of

remark; and they have saddlers, shoemakers, and tailors, who, for ingenuity in their trades, are to be excelled by few. As to fine arts, their skill in painting is little or none; but in carving or sculpture (a fine art which appears to be of earlier growth than painting), they produce specimens which merit extreme praise. With Pagan Africa, as with Pagan Greece and Rome and other countries, sculpture is an art invited and cultivated by the voice and under the protection of religion. The fashioning of idols occasions a constant demand, and demands even a pious solicitude for excellence; and, accordingly, the Negro sculptors bring forth figures of men, crocodiles, snakes, and other objects, either detached, or carved in bas-relief; which, especially contrasting the rudeness of the instruments used, with the fineness and delicacy of some of the indentions, excite admiration for their persevering industry, and most ingenious labour."

"I am considerably astonished," interrupted Mr. Paulett; "but what you say of the Negro idols renews the impatience which I have long felt, to hear something of their religious faith and worship, and of the inside of those feteesh-huts of which you have spoken ?"

"You shall hear, then," returned Mr. Hartley; "and those topics will naturally lead us to the more painful ones with which I have before threatened you. It is observable (to begin), that while the form of the huts in which these nations dwell is always circular, the form of their feteesh-huts, or houses of their gods, is always square. The large but solitary feteesh-hut, which I mentioned as standing near the entrance of the town of Bookhar, in the empire of Yariba, has a number of figures upon the exterior of its walls, carved

in bas-relief, in various attitudes; some kneeling, some recumbent; and to these, as well as to those within, the people pay adoration, and ascribe miraculous performances. But the royal feteesh-hut in Catunga is, perhaps, the largest and most richly ornamented of any in the interior of Africa. Like others, it is a perfectly square building; but the length of each of its sides is more than sixty feet. Immediately opposite the entrance is a gigantic human figure, carved in wood, and bearing the figure of a lion upon its head ; all beautifully executed. Twenty-six or twenty-seven other figures, carved in bas-relief, occupy the adjacent sides of the hut; but all in a kneeling posture, and with their faces turned toward the larger and principal figure, to which they are obviously in the act of paying their devotions. Upon the heads of all the smaller figures, corresponding with that upon the head of the principal figure, are figures of animals, one to each; as, panthers, hyænas, snakes, and crocodiles, exquisitely carved, and painted, or rather stained, with a variety of colours*. The floor is stained of a crimson colour, and very highly polished. Hither the king, accompanied by his nobility or chiefs, is accustomed to repair, at times either of ordinary or extraordinary devotion; and here to offer praises in prosperity, or prayers and humiliations in adversity. Upon entering the temple, the king instantly uncovers his head, and prostrates himself upon the floor; an example which

is as

instantly followed by those who wait upon him.

A similar usage, of placing upon the heads of the idols figures of the animals that are their emblems, appears to have prevailed among the ancient Saxons, our own ancestors, as well as among other nations; and armorial crests may be thought in some shape of this origin, considering the close relationship of heraldry to the

religion of its day.

In this posture all remain, sometimes for an hour or more, expressing themselves aloud, or else in an under tone; and either lamenting, exulting, extolling, or beseeching. Into this particular sanctuary, none of the lower classes of the people are permitted to enter; with the exception of a poor old woman, whose business it is to keep it clean, and who remains without whenever the king is within the temple. Only around the external walls of this building, the common people prostrate themselves and pray; but there are fifty other feteesh-huts in Catunga, upon smaller and less beautiful scales, which are open to every one; in all of which public worship is performed before sunrise; and to which individuals can always repair throughout the day, upon any movement of individual devotion-of individual hope or fear, desire or enjoyment— sorrow or delight. To every feteesh-hut belongs one or more feteesh-man or priest.

The feteesh-huts in Negroland, like the churches in Europe, are sometimes rather profaned, by employment for temporal uses, as merely large buildings, for the moment, happen to be needed; and sometimes, exactly like the churches of ancient Europe, they are used for objects partly temporal and partly spiritual, that is, as courts of justice. In Africa still, as anciently in Europe, the ordeal of bitter water, and other forms of divine judgment, are occasionally resorted to; and, in these cases, the ordeal, or feteesh, is performed in a feteesh-hut, and administered by a feteesh-man, or priest. There are, perhaps, feteesh-huts expressly for this latter purpose; since, in Badagry, I have seen one which is used only for ordeals, and the walls of which are disfigured with human skulls and bones, whitened. by time, and as if placed there for emblems of the