DAHOMEY AS IT IS; BEING A NARRATIVE OF EIGHT MONTHS' RESIDENCE IN THAT COUNTRY, WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE NOTORIOUS ANNUAL CUSTOMS, AND THE SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS OF THE FFONS; ALSO AN APPENDIX ON ASHANTEE, AND A GLOSSARY OF DAHOMAN WORDS AND TITLES.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Octavo. Three quarter red morocco, marbled boards; six spine panels with raised bands, panels decorated in gilt, black morocco spine label stamped in gilt; marbled, coated endpapers. Full color frontispiece. xxii, 524 pp. Half-title present. Illustrated with three additional color lithograph plates, four tinted monochrome plates, 17 inline woodcuts, all from sketches by the Author, and one large folding map. Full descriptions of each chapter, and a list of illustrations. Some rubbing to front edge with two small instances of morocco chipped, some little foxing to a few prelims, else clean and bright throughout.
First Edition copy featuring an unrecorded plate variant. Notable for containing the fourth chromolithograph plate ("The Gun Custom" facing page 221) which is omitted from the printed List of Illustrations (p. xxi). The large folding map, frequently damaged or missing in other examples, is preserved here in the most desirable condition: completely free of tears.
Skertchly, an English entomologist, was captured by King Glele and detained in Abomey for eight months, where he was treated as royalty. This work remains one of the most detailed 19th-century European accounts of West African court life, the Dahomean military (including the all-female "Amazons"), and local religious practices. Very good. Item #869
Price: $1,200.00