Osisi (gun) and Etu (canon) are both types of firearms. Although the Portuguese developed trade and alliances with Benin Kingdom from the late fifteenth century onwards, a papal ban on the sale of firearms to non-Christian peoples prevented firearms being sold to the Ọba (Ryder, 1969, p.41[112]). Despite this prohibition, some firearms did make their way to Benin Kingdom by the end of sixteenth century, and as other European powers such as the Dutch traded with the Ọba, different firearms were acquired.