h is regarded as a sort of circumcision.
Anointed from head to foot with palm-oil, they are next reconducted to
their home in the gree-gree bush. Here, under strict watch, they are
maintained by their relatives or those who are in treaty for them as
wives, until they reach the age of puberty. At this epoch the
important fact is announced by the gree-gree woman to the purchaser or
future husband, who, it is expected, will soon prepare to take her
from the retreat. Whenever his _new_ house is ready for the bride's
reception, it is proclaimed by the ringing of bells and vociferous
cries during night. Next day search is made by females through the
woods, to ascertain whether intruders are lurking about, but when the
path is ascertained to be clear, the girl is forthwith borne to a
rivulet, where she is washed, anointed, and clad in her best attire.
From thence she is borne, amid singing, drumming, shouting, and
firing, in the arms of her female attendants, till her unsoiled feet
are deposited on the husband's floor.[9]

I believe this institution exists throughout a large portion of
Africa, and such is the desire to place females within the bush, that
poor parents who cannot pay the initiatory fee, raise subscriptions
among their friends to obtain the requisite slave whose gift entitles
their child to admission. Sometimes, it is said, that this _human
ticket is stolen_ to effect the desired purpose, and that no native
power can recover the lost slave when once within the sacred
precincts.

The gree-gree-bush is not only a resort of the virgin, but of the
wife, in those seasons when approaching maternity indicates need of
repose and care. In a few hours, the robust mother issues with her
new-born child, and after a plunge into the nearest brook, returns to
the domestic drudgery which I have already described.

* * * * *

In the time of Fana-Toro, Toso was the royal residence where his
majesty played sovereign and protector over six towns and fifteen
villages. His government was generally considered patriarchal. When I
bought Cape Mount, the king numbered "seventy-seven rains," equivalent
to so many years;--he was small, wiry, meagre, erect, and proud of the
respect he universally commanded. His youth was notorious among the
tribes for intrepidity, and I found that he retained towards enemies a
bitter resentment that often led to the commission of atrocious
cruelties.

It was not long aft