CHAPTER XVII.

Populations of the Ivory, Pepper, Gold, and Slave Coasts.-The Avekvom. -The Kouri, the Fantis, and Ashantis.-The Gha or Akkra and Adampi Tribes.-The Kerrapay.-The Dahomey, Yoruba, Benin, Ibo, Tapua, Old Calabar, Dualla, Isubu, Fernando Po, Ediya, and other Tribes.

THE Grain Coast is the country of the Krumen; the Gold Coast that of the Fantis and Ashantis. For the parts between we know little of the sea-board, less of the interior. The chief language of the Pepper and Ivory Coast is

The Avekvom, with miscellaneous affinities.

The chief family of the interior is one for which I propose the name

Kouri.-The Kouri area, as I imagine, lies between the Kong mountains and the Niger, beginning where the eastern divisions of the Mandingo group end. It is also bounded by the Howssa and Ashanti areas. The country has not been explored by Europeans. Word for word,

I believe Kouri to be Goburi, Cumbri, Kafir, and Giaour.

The Fantis, Ashantis, and other allied populations of the Gold Coast, come now under notice. The most general name for the language of these parts is, according to Riis, who has published a grammar of it, Otshi. It is spoken by the Ashanti, Denkyira, and Vasa populations; also by the Fanti; also by the natives of the districts named Akim and Akwam (Akwambu); also by those of Akripon and seven other towns of Akwapim.

In the Otshi pantheon the supreme divinity is called Onjama, or Nyankupong, the latter word meaning the sky or heavens. Nyankupong is also called Odamangkama, or the Creator; Amosu, the rain-giver; Amovua, the sun-giver. The spirits of the hill, the forest, the rock, the river, &c., are called Obosom, apparently a derivative from the root sum = shadow, Abonsam being the evil demon, and Sasabonsam the god of the earth, more bad than good.

These points are noticed because we are now in a part of Africa where the Mahometan influences are at a minimum, and where the pagan observances are known to a fair degree of accuracy. We are in the region of the purest, i. e. the grossest and most unmodified, fetichismsnake-worship, medicine-men, obi-sorcerers, superstitious ordeals, devil-drivers, and Mumbojumbos. The inhabitants of a Fanti village meet at nightfall, with sticks and staves, to yell and howl. By doing this they fancy that they have frightened the devils from the land, which when they have done, they feast.

The yam custom is held in September. The king takes part in it. So do his medicine-men. So does every one else who can. A procession is formed; noisy, irregular; over which the king, seated in a basket, carried

by his slaves, and with an umbrella over his head, presides. On reaching his dwelling, a sacrifice is made of eggs and fowls. It used (as is believed) to have been one of a human being. A yam is then tasted, and pronounced fit to eat. This having been done, the people consider themselves free to dig for them.

A fisherman will not go to sea on a Tuesday, nor will a huntsman enter the forest on a Friday.

A being named Tahbil resides in the substance of the rock upon which Cape Coast is built, and watches the town. Every morning, offerings of food or flowers are left for him on the rock. Most villages have a corresponding deity; and in earlier times there is good reason for believing that human beings were sacrificed to him.

If the survivors of a deceased Fanti be poor, the corpse is quietly interred in one of the denser spots of the jungles; and if rich, the funeral is at once costly and bloody; since gold and jewels are buried along with the dead body, and human sacrifices not unfrequently offered.

The administration of justice is rude and summary, the evidence consisting, for the most part, in either absurd ordeals or cruel tortures. The dhoom test is common over all western Africa. A poisonous or an emetic infusion is made. Innocence drinks and ejects, guilt swallows and dies of, it. That the priest, sorcerer, or medicineman is often the detector of crime is what we expect. What is called "tying Guinea fashion" is one of the sharpest of their tortures. The arms are drawn together behind the back by a cord fixed half-way between the elbows and shoulders. A piece of wood is then inserted, by means of which the cord can be tightened or loosened. The African analogue of the boot is a block of wood and a staple. By driving in the staple any amount of agonizing pressure can be applied.

At the same time there is the exercise, among the Fantis more especially, of some little industry and art. The hardest workers are the fishers, who use a canoe of wood of the bombax, from ten to twelve feet in length, and strengthened by cross timbers. The net-a casting net-is made from the fibres of the aloe or the pineapple, and is about twenty feet in diameter (?). Next to these come the farmers, whose rough agriculture consists in the cultivation of maize, bananas, yams, and pumpkins; and lastly, the gold-seekers. Of this there is abundance; and where the European coin of the coast ceases, the native currency of gold-dust begins. Sums of so small a value as three half-pence are thus paid; smaller ones being represented by cowries. The highest of their arts is that of manufacturing gold ornaments, and this is the hereditary craft of certain families. These transmit the secret of their skill from father to son, and keep the corporation to which they belong up to a due degree of closeness, by avoiding intermarriage with any of the more unskilled labourers.

There is, too, a little weaving, and a little skill in pottery.

An African empire begins with a number of petty States with a little headman (by courtesy called king) to each. They quarrel with one another until some politician, stronger or more crafty than the rest, reduces them and consolidates an empire. The Ashantis have thus, within the last century, made themselves the ruling power in the domain of the Otshi language. In the Aquapim, and perhaps in many of the neighbouring, chieftaincies, the headmanship descends from the uncle to the sister's son, as is the case, over and over again, in India, in North-Western America, and elsewhere. In Congo the children of the females of royal blood succeed,