The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-01-12
THE NATIVE AFRICAN

Dickens, in his Household Words, giyesza
description of the Natives of the Gold Coast
in Africa. Those on board the steamer Mia
CARA, sent back by Government, will soon be
enjoying the luxuries SO graphically described
by Dickens:
earthern vessel of palm oil, or carries two or
three suills of gold dust, the resultof his own
industry in washing the sands after the rains.
His sole article of clothing is a Manchester
RENAL, or length of eheckered cotton, girded
round his loins. But be knows the yalue Of
his own merchandise, and Of that for which he
intends to exchange it, He is bird BY no
means to be caught with chaff. He viii not
change his palm oil for bunch of feathers,
nor his gold for string of beads; neither does
he affect any article of European clothing, nor
banker after any produce of European ciyiliza-
ton. He wants rum--the strong, coarse Amer
lean rum-and he knows to a spoonful how
much he ought to get of it. He wants from.
time to time, new RENAL, also cloth blanket
to throw over his shoulders on state occasions,
| and muskets to make row with and FIRE of
when he keeps custom But he wants no food,
because the maize springs up for him almost
without cultivation, and his women pound it
between two stones, and add water to make q
paste which he calls kaukee and ON this he
gorges himself with great relish. Sometimes
his soul lusteth for meat, and then the black
snails of the forest, as big as fist, furnish him
with soup of which palm oil is also am essential
ingredient.
4 prov1dent house wife spreads those snails
on bit of grass, and dries them in the sun,
thus saving her lord and master from the toll
Isof putting out his hand to take them The
long black haired monkey also provides him
with bounteous repast Pity the SORROWS of
European travelling through the bush and
partaking of the hospitality Che win have to
/ pay handsomely for it) of native, when, as :
i dehcacy reserved for him, there is fshed up
out of a big petsof soup black head, with the
Il lips drawn back, and the white teeth grinnine.
and such painful resemblance of the faces
around him that for moment he wonders
which of the younger members of the family
has been sacrificed to the ex gencies of the oc-
casion. But he is treasured and discovers that
he is not eating man but monkey. The native
of Gold Coast has no desire to buy q house.
nor to build house nor to live in a house.
! He does not wish to add field to field, or to
| make name in the land. His chief and only
desire In life is to eat when hungry, to drink
whenever he can, and to sleep in the interim
/ He has no anxiety for HIMSELF and certainly
none for his offspring, who have neither to be
Ieducated nor clothed nor has he any misgi-
wing about their future prospects.
They run about In the bush if he lives In
land, or he runs them into the sea if he lives
on the coast. You may watch them in any
number, and in all ages, from two to twelve,
/ diving and ducking under the waves waiting
for a big one; and then ON the crest Of it you
see the little shining black bodies tossed over
and over and round and round, till, screaming
with pleasure, they are washed upon the sand,
like a tangle of sea-weed. Then, slowly and
with mnch noise, they unravel themselves and
crawl back to the water, and continue this
sport the whole day, with the exception of the
time occupied in consuming huge Jumps of
kankee, brought to them by their mothers
The paternal domain is, for the most part, =
ancestors of the family have been buried for
many generatiops-