Mission to Gelele

"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 expres...