The King now retired to his previous position; and after I had partaken of some eatables, the day’s amusement commenced. All the principal men in his Majesty’s service were ordered to the front. They were all dressed in their most gaudy dresses, of various shapes and colours, according to the taste of the wearer; but all of the headmen wore silver gauntlets, and a profusion of beads and anklets, generally made of a common small iron chain, in substance similar to a horse-collar chain used in England, but the links merely closed, not welded. Others of lower rank, or second, as they are called (for each headman has his second), were dressed in their military dress. Several of the principal men were also disguised in masks and clowns’ dresses, who performed antics and all manner of buffoonery. Some had on masks resembling the head of a bear, others that of a monkey. Some also displayed a pair of silver horns fixed on the forehead by a bandeau. About ten yards in front of the place where his Majesty lay, three skulls were placed on the ground, forming an equilateral triangle, about three feet apart. At a little distance from the three last-named skulls a calabash was placed, containing several skulls of distinguished men taken or killed in war. On a low stool was also placed a large imitation of a skull in silver, but a very indifferent imitation, of Portuguese manufacture; and seven standards, with ridiculous devices rudely cut from different-coloured cloth, and sewed on them, chiefly relating to their defeat of the Makee or Mahee[19] people, a country about six days’ journey to the northward of Dahomey. The pole of each standard was mounted with the skull of a caboceer, or ruler of a town. It would appear that the Mahees had many skirmishes with the Dahomans. On one occasion a trading party went from Dahomey to the Mahee country to traffic, but were robbed of their goods and murdered. This circumstance so enraged the King of Dahomey that he immediately collected all his soldiers, male and female, and marched them into the enemy’s country. His army, however, returned without either a negotiation or gaining a victory. Whereupon the King ordered his soldiers to return immediately, with orders to destroy the capital within three days. Accordingly, they returned by forced marches, and reached the capital of the Mahee country, which was found to be strongly fenced round with the same prickly bush I have already mentioned. The same night, or early on the following morning, the female soldiers took the place, with the King and his wives, and a great number of his headmen, without any resistance, and in three days the Dahomans (according to their own account) took one hundred and twenty-six towns, making the greater part of the enemy prisoners, and putting to death those who offered any resistance. This was the last great war in which the Dahomans had been engaged.