This three-legged stool comes from Porto Novo in the former French colony of Dahomey (now the Republic of Benin) with a central design inscribed on the seat (the original African carving). Additional carving consists of ships’ names (‘HMS Sokoto’), European names, toasts and mottos (‘Softly softly catch monkey’). On the underside is carved ‘Oh, beware of the Bight of Benin. Its few go out, but many come in’. This is a version of a shanty – ‘Beware and take care of the Bight of Benin, there’s one comes out for forty goes in’ – that reflects the high European mortality on the ‘fever’ coast in Africa.