The country also abounds with larger deer of different descriptions, one of which I this day had the satisfaction of shooting, having cautiously crept behind a bush very near to him. There were a doe and fawn of the same description, at a short distance, grazing. This chance would have supplied us with plenty of venison for consumption for several days could we have kept it fresh. What we did not require the first day we broiled in the smoke, and kept it very well for the second day. This is the method adopted by the natives in drying and preserving both meat and fish. Even when a human head is desired to be preserved, the brains are extracted through the spinal connexion and the head held on the end of a stick in the smoke till it becomes quite hard and dry. I have seen some thousands preserved in this way in Dahomey. Wild carnivorous animals are very numerous here, and often make awful havoc amongst the stock of cattle, though traps of various inventions are employed (some of which would do credit to English ingenuity) to destroy them. An immense beam, with long spikes of hard wood fixed in it, is suspended about seven feet high. This beam rests on a pivot at each end. When the animal passes under and between the two pivots, he treads upon a lever which throws the beam off the pivots, and it falls with full weight on the animal, forcing the spikes their full length into its body. They have also man-traps of a very singular construction: these, though simple, are the most efficient I ever saw. They are always placed in situations where none but trespassers can be injured. This trap is generally set in a fence, so that a person climbing over must come in contact with a certain part of it, which secures a piece of wood connected with another of about seven feet long, which latter is bent about two feet out of its natural position. The slightest touch releases this, and the spring resumes its natural position in a moment. In doing so it strikes the intruder on the shins with such violence as frequently to break both legs.