‘A Mission to Gelele’, the former King of Dahomey, which has taken place in the 1860s, describes with minuteness the rituals of Dahomeyan ‘customs, ‘ of which, before Captain Burton’s visit, tales had been spread mixed with wild exaggerations. Written in Burton’s lively style, it shows his powers of observation and description, as well as his cynical disposition and sometimes indelicacy of expression. The ethnology and philology of the country are carefully treated, and there is an important chapter on the Amazons, an all-female military regiment of the Kingdom, which describes the ferocity of these women and makes an excellent companion to the upcoming movie ‘The Woman King.’ Captain Burton clearly foretold the gradual but sure deterioration of Dahomey, consequent on the ‘custom’ of periodical slaughter and of an Amazonian soldiery, which by limiting reproduction caused both weakness in the country and degeneracy in its inhabitants. The continuance of these causes has led to the easy breaking up of the Kingdom by the French. This edition comes with more than 600 footnotes for an even better understanding of the text.
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