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Title: [The king of Benin and his army]
Description: Shows the King of Benin (second from right), and the members of his army. As Ogilby explained, in one day, the king could raise "twenty thousand Men in Arms, and in time of need, eighty, or a hundred thousand: so becomes dreadful to all his Neighbors." According to Ogilby, the common soldiers usually left "the upper part of the Their Body naked, but on the lower [wore] a Cloth as fine as Silk." (p. 474) Members of nobility clothed themselves in scarlet ("as a Badge of Eminency"), or wore "Gorgets of Elephants and Leopard-Teeth, and high red Caps, Wrought and Quilted with Leopards and Civet-Cat Skins; unto which hangs a long Horse Tail for Ornament"). (p. 474), Illustration in John Ogilby's Africa: Being an accurate description of the regions of Aegypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid: the Land of Negroes, Guinee, and Aethiopia, and Abyssines, with all the adjacent islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantick, Southern, or Oriental Sea, belonging thereunto (London: Printed by Tho. Johnson, for the author, and are to be had at his house in White Fryers, M.DC.LXX [1670]), p. 475., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: [1670]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Wing O163 14.F p 475, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2959

Title: [The king's seat]
Description: Shows the throne or ("seat") of an African King in Nether-Ethiopia. According to Ogilby's text, "The Stool, or Seat, whereupon he sits, stands raised upon a Foot-pace, dressed with white and black Wickers, very artificially Woven, and other sorts of curious adornings; behind his Back hangs on a Pole a Shield, cover'd with divers party-colour'd Stuffs, brought out of Europe. Near him stand also six of eight Fanns, by them call'd Pos, or Mani, and containing in length and breadth half a Fathom, at the upper end of a long Stick which runs through the middle of it, having a round Brim, in form of a half Globe fasten'd, interwoven with little Horns, and with white and black Parrots Feathers between: Those Fanns certain People, which the King keeps for that purpose, move with great force, which agitating the Air, causes a refreshing and pleasant coolness. Before the King's seat lieth spread a great Cloth twenty Fathom long, and twelve broad, made of quilted Leaves sew'd together, upon which none may go but the King and his Children; but round it they leave room for two or three persons to pass by, the Nobility sitting in long Ranks, every one with a Buffles Tail in his Hand, which for the most part they move in the preference of the King: Some sit upon the bare Ground; others upon Cloathes made of the same Stuff with the King's: Behind them stand the People; as behind the King all his great Officers, not few in number." (p. 507), Illustration in John Ogilby's Africa: Being an Accurate Description of the Regions of Aegypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid: the Land of Negroes, Guinee, and Aethiopia, and Abyssines, with all the Adjacent Islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantick, Southern, or Oriental Sea, Belonging Thereunto (London: Printed by Tho. Johnson, for the author, and are to be had at his house in White Fryers, M.DC.LXX [1670]), p. 507., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: [1670]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Wing O163 14.F p 507, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2960

Title: [Ehem, or little boats, and jenge-jenge, or African bridges, in Negroland]
Description: Engraving shows two ehem (or canoes), which were commonly used in Negroland. On the left, two men build an ehem, while a third wades through the water with a bundle of wood on his back. To the right, five men paddle a finished ehem. As Ogilby wrote, "Along the whole Coast the Inhabitants use light and nimble Boats, or Sloops; by them call'd, Ehem; by the Portuguese, Almades; and by the English and others, Canoos: with which they go some Leagues to Sea, and row up the Rivers from one place to another: They are made of one entire piece of Wood, or the body of a Tree cut long-ways with Cutting-Knives; then made hollow on the sides, and narrow above, with a flat bottom, and without any covering over head; the Ends before and behind narrow, and close together as a Hand-bow, and almost in the same fashion; the Head somewhat lower, the Sides a finger thick, and the Bottom two: And after the hollowing, they burn the Wood with Straw, to prevent Worms, and cleaving by the Sun. At each End the Canoo hath a Bowe like a Galley, a foot long, and a Knob a hand thick, whereby the Blacks carry them in and out of the Water upon their shoulders; for they suffer them not to lie soaking in the water, but set them upon Props to dry; by which means they both preserve them from rotting, and make them more pliable and swift in the using. Behind they have a Rudder like an Oar, being a long Stick with a round leaf at it: The common ones, wherewith they go out a Fishing, are generally sixteen foot long, five broad, and three foot high; some so large, that fifty or sixty men may stand in them with their Arms; which sort are made about Cape de tres Puntas, because there grows mighty large Trees, being seventeen or eighteen fathom in thickness. They lie not high with their Sides above water, but oftentimes he that steers the Helm, sits with his body most in the water: The small ones will hold onely one man in the Breadth, but seven or eight in the Length; which are rowed with Oars made of hard wood, in shape of a Spade, with an extraordinary dexterity Galley-fashion; and make such swift way in Still water, that they seem to flye, but in Rough-water they will not go forward so fast: The smaller sort, by reason of their narrowness, overset very easily which the Negroe's with great facility turn and leap into again." (p. 454-55), Illustration in John Ogilby's Africa: Being an accurate description of the regions of Aegypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid: the Land of Negroes, Guinee, and Aethiopia, and Abyssines, with all the adjacent islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantick, Southern, or Oriental Sea, Belonging Thereunto (London: Printed by Tho. Johnson, for the author, and are to be had at his house in White Fryers, M.DC.LXX [1670]), p. 454 (bottom)., A closely related version of the engraving (mirror image) was published in Pieter van der Aa's La galerie agreable du monde (Leyden: 1729?) under the title Ehem, ou canots, petits bateaux, et Jenge-Jenge ou ponts des Africains., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: [1670]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Wing O163 14.F p 454 B, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2958

Title: Dracht en wapening der Hottentots = The Hottentots clothing and their dress
Description: Set in a lush landscape near the Cape of Good Hope, the illustration features a group of Khoikoin, also known (pejoratively) as the Hottentots. Engraving accompanies a passage in which Ogilby offers a detailed description of their clothing and weapons. "Their Clothing is very sordid, and vile, most of the Men wearing onely a Sheeps Pelt, or Badgers Skin, in manner of a Mantle about their Shoulders, with the hairy side commonly within, and ty'd under their Chin. Such a Mantle consists of three Pieces, neatly sew'd together with Sinews of Beasts in stead of Threed. When they go abroad, or upon a Journey, they throw another Sheeps-skin, with the Wool on the out-side, over the undermost. Upon their Heads they wear a Cap of Lamb-skin, with the Woolly side inward, and a Button on the top. Their shoes are made of a Rhincerot's Skin, and consists of a whole flat Piece, before and behind of a like heighth, with a Cross of two Leather-bands fasten'd to their Feet. Before their Privacies hangs a little piece of a wild Wood-Cat, or ring-streaked Tyger, or Jack-alls Skin, ty'd behind with two Thongs. The Habit of the Women differs little from the former, being a Sheep-skin Mantle on the upper part of their Bodies, with the Wool inwards; but somewhat longer than the Men; also another Skin hanging behind to cover their back-parts, and a square Piece before their Privacies. On their Heads they wear a high Cap of a Sheeps, or Badgers Skin, bound to their Heads with a broad Fillet: In all the rest following the Mens Garb. . . . Many of them wear as an Ornament, the Guts of Beasts, fresh and stinking, drawn two or three times one through another, about their Necks, and the like about their Legs . . . . When they go abroad they have usually an Ostrich Feather, or a Staff, with a wild Cats Tail ty'd to it, in one Hand, in stead of a Handkerchief to wipe their Eyes and Noses, and beat away the Dust, Sand, and Flies, and in the other Hand a sleight Javelin. The Women never go abroad without a Leather Sack at their backs, having at each end a Tuft or Taffel, fill'd with one trifle or another. Their Weapons, or Arms, are Bowes and Arrows, and small Darts, three, four, or five Foot long, having at one end a broad sharp Iron fixed, which they handle and throw very dexterously." (p. 590-91), Double-page plate in John Ogilby's Africa: Being an Accurate Description of the Regions of Aegypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid: the Land of Negroes, Guinee, and Aethiopia, and Abyssines, with all the Adjacent Islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantick, Southern, or Oriental Sea, Belonging Thereunto (London: Printed by Tho. Johnson, for the author, and are to be had at his house in White Fryers, M.DC.LXX [1670]), p. 590., A seemingly identical copy of this engraving appeared in Pieter van der Aa's La Galerie agreable du monde (Leyden: 1729?). The Leyden version was signed by van der Aa., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: [1670]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Wing O163 14.F p 590, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2962

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