A good share of this used to be effected by means of the slave-trade. But that is gone, or nearly so, and with it may go much of the atrocity of Dahomean public life. Things are yet, however, and may long remain, in a transition state. He and his people will not suddenly lose their taste for the excitement of human suffering; and it would be a danger for which, it is probable, he has not the moral courage, or a result for which he has no real wish, to bring old national ceremonies to a sudden pause. But there are circumstances likely to act with effect in producing the change, which is a matter destined to occur at some time or other, and to be obtained when it occurs only in one mode; and the sooner the process is begun, the sooner it will end. [Illustration: _F.E. Forbes, delt._ _Lith. of Sarony & Co. N. Y._ SKULL ORNAMENTS & BANNERS OF DAHOMEY.] As to what it is that higher principles must banish from the world, Commander Forbes, of the British Navy, in 1850, the latest visitor of that country who has given an account of it, tells us what he saw. He says: “There is something fearful in the state of subjection in which, in outward show, the kings of Dahomey hold their highest officers; yet, when the system is examined, these prostrations are merely keeping up of ancient customs. Although no man’s head in Dahomey can be considered warranted for twenty-four hours, still the great chief himself would find his tottering if one of these customs was omitted.” They were preparing for the ceremony of watering the graves of the royal ancestors with blood; during which the king also presents some victims as a royal gift to his people. This merely means that they are knocked down in public, and their heads cut off, amidst trumpeting, and clamor, and jesting. “With much ceremony,” we read, “two large calabashes, containing the skulls of kings,” conquered by the Dahomeans, “ornamented with copper, brass, coral, &c., were brought in and placed on the ground. Some formed the heads of walking-sticks, distaffs; while those of chiefs and war-men ornamented drums, umbrellas, surmounted standards, and decorated doorways. They were on all sides in thousands.” “There was much to disgust the white man in the number of human skulls and jaw-bones displayed; but can the reader imagine twelve unfortunate human beings lashed hands and feet, and tied in small canoes and baskets, dressed in clean white dresses, with a high red cap, carried on the heads of fellow-men? These, and an alligator and a cat, were the gift of the monarch to the people--prisoners of war.”... “When carried round the court, they bore the gaze of their enemies without shrinking. At the foot of the throne they halted, while the _Mayo_ presented each with a head (bunch) of cowries, extolling the munificence of the monarch, who had sent it to them to purchase a last meal, for to-morrow they must die.”