When the 'Queen of Shades' arose, and it became too dark to see the world,
we halted at the Sensyere village, and found good sleeping-quarters in the
guest-house of the headman, Bato. Fortunately we had brought mattresses.
The standing four-poster of the country offers only cross-planks covered
with the thinnest matting. As the ancient joke of many a lugubrious
African traveller says, it combines bed and board. Next morning, despite
the chilly damp and the 'old-woman-cannot-see,' as the Scotch mist is here
called, our men were ready within reasonable limits. After two hours'
hammock we found ourselves at Atabo, capital of eastern Apollonia, about
to pay our promised return-visit to good King Blay. It is useless to
describe the settlement, which in no way differs from those passed on the
path. The country-people related its origin as follows:--A Fanti man from
the country between Secondee (Sekondi), or Fort Orange, and Shamah
(Chamah), at the mouth of the Bosom Prah, when driven out by war, first
founded 'Kabeku,' near the present place of that name. His sons built
Bein, or Behin, [Footnote: The aspirate is hardly audible. Captain
Brackenbury, generally so careful, manages to confound Bein and Benin.
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