1858.] THE HIGHLAND WOMAN'S DREAM. 23 listened, and could not mistake the piercing shrill sound echoing from hill to hill, which assured us that the deliverance long looked for was at hand. How long shall the tide of war, Beset these shattered walls; On the wearied spirit falls. Her cheering aid To the poor besieged is well-nigh spent. Nobly the true and brave, Have resolved to stand and die; Heaven's stars shine most when the night is dark. And still, though with 'minished force, Deliv'rance sure will come at length. A wearied woman there By a weight of grief oppressed, For an hour has sunk to rest; To the distant hills of her Highland home. And she sees the heath once more, From the distant fold. Of joys long past that music tells. The frugal supper now Her father from the plough Yet it came from heaven, On that stormy day one blessed beam. Sleep on, poor soul! Above Is one, who, with watchful care, O'er the angry floods, And the billows dark that round her roll. VOL. VIII. NEW SERIES. 1858.] ( 25 ) ISEIN, A TOWN IN YORUBA. THE population of the Yoruba country live in towns. They have been compelled to do so because of the unsettled state of the country. Great and small, these towns are surrounded by clay walls, about five feet high, and sufficiently thick to be a good de 26 ISEIN, A TOWN IN YORUBA. [MARCH, fence. At the foot of the wall runs a ditch, three or four feet wide, and several feet deep, the wall being perforated with gates at convenient distances. Within the wall are to be seen thousands of low, broad, grass-thatched cottages. The streets, when you enter, are crooked and narrow, with the exception of one broad, although seldom straight, street, running from each gate to the market-place, and commonly shaded with beautiful, wide-spreading trees. The market-place is the spot of greatest interest. It is a large area, overshadowed with trees, and studded with little open sheds, consisting of a low thatched roof, surmounted on rude posts. The evening is the principal marketing hour. About half an hour before sunset, all sorts of people, men, women, girls, travellers lately arrived in caravans, farmers from their fields, and artisans from their houses, flock in to buy, and sell, and talk. There may be heard the clatter of tongues, as the buyers and sellers chaffer about the price, and sometimes laugh and sometimes quarrel. As the shades of night fall, if there be no moon, every woman lights her little lamp, and the market-place sparkles with numberless tiny stars. The objects for sale are sufficiently varied - various kinds of meats, fowls, sheep, goats, dogs, rats, tortoises, eggs, fish, snails, yams, &c., domestic clothing, imported cloth, as calico, shirting, &c., gunpowder, flints, knives, swords, paper, ready-made clothing, &c. The town presented in our engraving is Isein, visited by the Rev. H. Townsend in August last, with a view to the commencement of Missionary work. The surrounding country, as viewed by him, appears to be of a very interesting character. "We went up a high hill that overlooked a very large extent of country. The scenery is very beautiful, hills on every side, but not so numerous or near as to confine the view. They are here, as it appears they are through the regions of Central Africa, not in connected chains, but often as links of a chain laid along in a line, and sometimes side by side, but not linked together. Their general direction is north and south: they are, for the most part, formed of granite or quartz; some nearly bare, of a round, dome-like form; others of long, saddle-back shape; and others broken huge masses of granite piled over each other, with trees and shrubs growing out between the masses, having creepers and climbers hung over and about the trees and rocks, forming a thick mass of green leaves, of graceful forms, leaving here and there an opening, by which the rocks beneath are partly seen. From the Isein hill on which we stood, the highest of the group, we saw an extensive plain to the north, and a little eastward of north we could recognise a range of hills called Oke Amo, that is, the Amo hills; to the west and north-west we saw the Oke Fo range, much more irregular and disjointed than the former: then we come to a group of hills between Isein, Okefo, and Awaye, but closer Awaye; they, for the most part, are of a rounder form and more bare. We then come to Oke Ado, which, in form, may be compared to a lion crouching, with his head towards the south. This hill, the highest and most remarkable object in sight, is about a mile and 1858.] NATIVE CHRISTIANS AT GORRUCKPUR. 27 a quarter to a mile and a half in length: it has several palm trees on it, which appear from the plain very small, and a tree or two of another kind. There are two or three villages, the houses of which can be distinguished from the grey rock by those who know they are there. Beyond Ado, to the south, the Bioku hills can be seen, and, beyond, Oke Tapa. Oke Tapa is a long range to the west of Berekudo and Eruwa, one of the Bioku range, in a parallel line. The southern part of the Tapa range we see at Abbeokuta. There is another range of hills called Oke Bakere, which we saw, but they are better seen at Bioku: they seem to be an exception to the general rule that the hills extend north and south these appear to have a direction from north-west to southeast. I think the river Ogun passes close to the north-west end of this range: the old road from Abbeokuta to Ijaye passes close to the southeastern end. There are three very high hills to the east, called Oke Obba: they are more plainly seen from Ijaye and Oyo. But although the eye scans this extensive scene of hill and plain, one object is entirely wanting, viz. water: not that there is none, for the river Ogun would be distinctly seen in its course but for the trees, more than sprinkled over the plain, which almost cover the ground, looking down upon them, except within a mile or two of the hill on which we stood. The trees are not generally forest trees, but such kinds as are of a hard and stubborn nature, capable of resisting the annual burning of the grass around, but not of a great size. I think, with Mr. Bowen, that these annual burnings are the only cause why a large part of the land does not become forest. There is one melancholy reflection, also, that forces itself on one, when looking around on this extensive and beautiful country, viz. that it is comparatively without inhabitants: probably not a hundredth part of it is tilled by its present population year by year. It had probably a population three or fourfold of its present amount within the memory of a generation not yet passed away. Cupidity and selfishness have swept the country with a besom of destruction: the white race, boasting of free and enlightened institutions, have reaped the spoil." We may mention here, that, unlike Liberia and other West-African districts which are covered with heavy forests, Yoruba is generally an open, prairie-like country, scattered over with small spreading trees. These African prairies are considered by Mr. Bowen, the American Missionary, to be the result of long-continued cultivation, followed by annual burnings of the tall grass. Let us hope that the time is coming, when, under the renewing influence of Christianity, peace being restored to the land, the people shall leave their wall-enclosed towns, and, spreading themselves over the face of the country, re-occupy the wastes of Yoruba, NATIVE CHRISTIANS AT GORRUCKPUR. GORRUCKPUR is a district of India on the south-west border of Oude, about as large as Wales, and containing upwards of 3,000,000 of inhabitants. The principal town, a place of some 50,000 inhabitants, on the river Raptee, bears the same name as the district. |