Next day the unfortunate mother
must seem ignorant of her daughter's doom, or profess herself proud of
the _Juju's_ choice. Two days pass without notice of the victim. On
the third, at the river side, the king meets his fanatical subjects,
clad in their choicest raiment, and wearing their sweetest smiles. A
hand of music salutes the sovereign, and suddenly the poor victim, _no
longer a virgin and perfectly denuded_, is brought forward by a
wizard, who is to act the part of executioner. The living sacrifice
moves slowly with measured steps, but is no more to be recognized even
by her nearest relatives, for face, body, and limbs, are covered
thickly with chalk. As soon as she halts before the king, her hands
and feet are bound to a bench near the trunk of a tree. The
executioner then takes his stand, and with uplifted eyes and arms,
seems to invoke a blessing on the people, while with a single blow of
his blade, her head is rolled into the river. The bleeding trunk, laid
carefully on a mat, is placed beneath a large tree to remain till a
spirit shall bear it to the land of rest, and at night it is secretly
removed by the priesthood.

It is gratifying to know that these _Jujus_, who in Africa assume the
prerogatives of divinity, are only the principals of a religious
fraternity who from time immemorial have constituted a secret society
in this part of Ethiopia, for the purpose of sustaining their kings
and ruling the people through their superstition. By fear and
fanaticism these brutal priests exact confessions from ignorant
negroes, which, in due time, are announced to the public as
divinations of the oracle. The members of the society are the
depositories of many secrets, tricks, and medical preparations, by
which they are enabled to paralyze the body as well as affect the mind
of their victim. The king and his chiefs are generally supreme in this
brotherhood of heathen superstition, and the purity of the sacrificed
virgin, in the ceremony just described was unquestionably yielded to
her brutal prince.

FOOTNOTE:

[6] From the Portuguese _feitico_--witchcraft.

CHAPTER XLI.

I have always regretted that I left Ayudah on my homeward voyage
without interpreters to aid in the necessary intercourse with our
slaves. There was no one on board who understood a word of their
dialect. Many complaints from the negroes that would have been
dismissed or satisfactorily adjusted, had we comprehended their
vivacious