The Shasta courier., 1859-03-19
The Native African.


Dickens, in his Household Words, gives de-
scription of the Natives of the gold coast in Af-
rica. Those on board the steamer Niagara, sent
back by Government, will soon be enjoying the
luxuries so graphically described by Dickens
| The native, he says, bears on his head an
earthen vessel of palm oil, or carries two or
three quills of gold dust, the result of his own
industry in washing the sands after the rains
His sole article of clothing is Manchester re-
nal, or length of checkered cotton, girded round
| his loins. But he knows the value of his own
merchandise, and of that for which he intends to
exchange it. He is q bird by no means to be
caught with chaff. He will not change his palm
oil for bunch of feathers nor his gold for
string of beads neither docs he affect any ar
ticle of European clothing, nor banker after any
produce of European civilization. He wants
rum-the strong, coarse, American rum-and he
knows to spoonful how much he ought to get
of it. He wants from time to time, new re-
NAL, also cloth blanket to throw over his
shoulders on state occasions, and a musket to
make show with and fire off when he keeps Gus
tom. 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 paste which he calls
kankee, and on this he gorges himself with great
relish. Sometimes his soul lustcth for meat,
and then the black suails of the forest, as big
fist, furnish him with soup of which palm oil
is also an essential ingredient
The provident housewife spreads these srals
on bit of grass, and dries them in the sun, thus
saving her lord and master from the toll of put
ting out his hand to take them The long black
haired monkey also provides him with a boun-
teous repast. Pity the sorrows of European
travelling through the bush and partaking of the
hospitality (he will have to pay handsomely for
n as n rva1 for
him, there is fished up out of a big pot of soup a
black head, with the lips drawn back, and the
white teeth grinning, and such painful resem-
bance of the faces around him that for mo-
ment he wonders which of the younger members
of the family has been sacrificed to the exgen-
ces of the occasion. But he is treasured, and
discovers that he is not eating man but monkey
The native of a Gold Coast has no desire to buy
house, nor to build a 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 in
terim He has no anxiety for himself, and cer-
talnly none for his offspring who have neither
to be educated nor clothed nor has he any mis-
giving about their future prospects.
They run about in the bush if he lives on
land, or he turns them into the if he lives on
the coast You may watch them in any num-
Der, and of 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 lit
tie shining black bodies tossed over and over
round and round, till, screaming With pleasure
they are washed upon the sand, like q tange of
sea-weed Then, slowly and with much 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 con-
suming huge Jumps of kankee, brought to them
by their mothers. The paternal domain is, for
the most part, q circular hut, under the mud floor
of which the ancestors of the family have been
buried for many generations.
TIE ANCIENT DRUIDs-No system of idolatrous
worship ever gained greater ascendency over
the minds of men than that of the ancient Gaus
and Britons. Rough, reckless, and barbarous as
they were, their priests led them as though they
had been lambs. These priests possessed both
civil and criminal jurisdiction, and they were
exempt from the dangers of war, and also were |
exempt from the demands of taxation They |
imposed the most rigid laws upon their subjects;
and severe and terrible were the punishments
they visited upon the heads of offenders The |
awe which they inspired was great that, al
though no other guard than that of the deep
forests was thrown around the treasures which |
they accumulated, no robber was so daring as |
to molest their spoils, or attempt to make them
his prey. These priests practiced the shedding |
of human blood at their sacrifices. The utmost |
mystery and gloom seemed always to hover
about their haunts; and their affairs were the /
shrines of violence and murder. Such were the |
Druids; and the influence which they exerted |
over their followers extended into another world
for they taught the doctrine of the transmigra-
ton of souls; and that their power to inhict
punishment did not end with the present life of
4 fharr ats, DIT 1.-I- II
sway of the Druids, it had its use in restraining
that wild and warlike people. When that use
was fulfilled, they were swept away. They had I
ruled by violence and blood, and they were vio-
lently destroyed for their blood quenched the
fire Of their burning homes, as they died by the
sword, amid their consecrated groves and altars,
in the reign of the Emperor Nero.