expected some of them might know him again, and call out to the king of England to stop him.

A captain said that monkeys could talk, as well as men, but they were not such fools; for they knew, if they talked, men would make them work. The Moors said that the monkeys sprang from those Israelites who disobeyed Moses.

The wild music of the Ashantees is scarcely to be brought within the regular rules of harmony; yet their airs have a great sweetness and animation. They declare that they can converse by means of their flutes. The singing is mostly recitative, and in this the women take a part. The songs of the canoe men are peculiar to themselves, and resemble the chaunts in our cathedrals. The oldest air I met with was common to both Ashantees and Warsaws. I traced it through four generations ; but the answer to my farther enquiries was, "It was made when the country was made."

The following is a translation of a song, in singing which the men sit in a line, with their musical instruments, and the women in a line opposite. Individuals rise and advance, singing in their turn.

FIRST WOMAN.

My husband likes me too much,

He is too good to me;

But I cannot like him,

So I must listen to my lover.

FIRST MAN.

My wife does not please me,

I tire of her now ;

So I will please myself with another,
Who is very handsome.

SECOND WOMAN,

My lover tempts me with sweet words,

But my husband always does me good;

So I must like him well,

And I must be true to him.

SECOND MAN,

Girl, you pass my wife handsome,
But I cannot call you wife;

A wife pleases her husband only,

But when I leave you, you go to others.

The Ashantees say that, at the beginning of the world, God created three black men and three white, with the same number of women, and placed before them a large box, or calabash, and a sealed paper. The black men had the privilege of choosing, and they took the box, expecting it contained every thing: but when they opened it, they found only gold, iron, and other metals, of which they did not know the use. The white men opened the paper, and it told them every thing, This happened in Africa, where God left the black men in the bush. The white men he conducted to the water side, where he taught them to build a ship, which carried them to another country. From hence they returned, after long period, with various merchandise, to trade with the black men, who might have been the superior people if they had chosen right.

The kings and governors are believed to dwell with God after death, enjoying to eternity the luxuries and state they possessed on earth: the paradise of the poor affords only a cessation from labour.

There are two orders of men attached to the inferior deities called fetishes. The first class reside with the fetish, who has a small round house at some distance from the town, and deliver his

oracular responses to those who desire to question him. The inferior class pursue their several avocations in society, assist in customs and superstitious ceremonies, and are what conjurors and fortune-tellers are in Europe. The number of these is augmented by persons who declare that the fetish has seized them; and after violent contortions, and great severities inflicted on themselves, they are acknowledged as belonging to the order. The dignity of the first class is hereditary.

Half the offerings made to the fetish are pretended to be thrown into the river; the other half belong to the priests. The king's offering is commonly ten ounces of gold, and three or four slaves; that of a poor man about four ackies.

Every family has its domestic fetishes, to which they offer yams, &c.: some of these are wooden figures; others are of fanciful forms, and different materials.

Different families solemnize different days of the week by wearing white cloths, and abstaining from labour. The king's fetish day is Tuesday. Propriety, unaided by religion, dictates a holiday to man. Some families never eat beef; others never eat pork, these meats being sacred to their fetish. Fowls and beef are the fetish of the king's family. This renunciation of the good things set before them by Providence, resembles that of the catholics, but proceeds from a different motive; the latter believe that mortifying their appetite is acceptable to God; the former that fowls and beef are acceptable to the idol.

When the Ashantees drink, they spill a little of the liquor upon the ground as an offering to the

fetish; and when they rise from 'their chairs or stools, their attendants hastily lay the seat on its side, to prevent the devil from slipping into their master's place. This evil spirit is supposed to be white.

CHAPTER XXVII.

ROADS. ACCOUNT OF TIMBUCTOO.

RETURN TO THE COAST.

HOUSSA,

I HAVE hitherto said nothing of the Moors settled at Coomassie, who occupy one street exclusively. These people looked upon me with a jealous eye, and when I sketched the buildings, they endeavoured to persuade the king that I could lay a spell upon them. This gave him at first some uneasiness, but he afterwards permitted me to draw his portrait, and desired to be drawn handsome.

It was not without reason that the Moors were jealous of an intruder; for they exercise a most lucrative profession at Coomassie; the manufacturing, and selling of amulets or charms. The Ashantees believe that these avert every evil but sickness and death. For a charm of six lines, which the king presented to my interpreter, Baba, the chief Moor, received six ackies, or thirty shillings; and a sheet of paper would support an inferior Moor for a month. The charms attached to the war-coats of the principal officers cost the king from the value of nine to thirty slaves for

each coat: but when it is considered that these charms render the wearers invulnerable, the price is not extravagant. The keeping in the rear of the army, as it has been observed these officers always do, may probably assist the charm. That the charm assists their valour there can be no doubt, as they rush fearless upon the most daring enterprizes, and several of them offered to let us fire at them. The Moors have persuaded the Ashantees that they hold converse with God, and can invigorate them, while they gradually consume the strength of their enemies.

Having sent the Moors some muslin for turbans, I ventured to visit Baba, taking with me a present of pens, ink, paper, and pencils. The paper and pencils were highly acceptable; but he preferred his reed and vegetable ink to my pens and ink. His pupils were writing on wooden boards. When any person came for a charm, one of the oldest boys wrote it; the master added a sort of cabalistical mark, and gave the paper a mysterious fold; and the negro snatched it eagerly, as it was held towards him, paid his gold for it, and hastened away to enclose it in the richest case he could afford.

I requested Baba to draw me a map of the world; he did so, encircling one large continent with sea, and surrounding the sea with a border of rock. Baba possessed a great number of Arabic manuscripts.

From the Moors and negroes residing at Coomassie, and other Moors who visited it occasionally from distant parts, I learned the following particulars respecting the routes of the interior of Africa.