Connecticut western news., 1873-09-19
The Ashantees.
A Peculiar Tribe of Savaxes,

A Peculiar Tribe of Savaxes.
 Winwood Reade writes to the Pali Mall Gazette as follows "In a former
 letter I sketched the origin and pro-
 gress of our palaver with the Ashantees
 -a dull topic, excused, I hope, by it's
 importance and shall now give some
 account of the Ashantees themselves.
 They belong to the same family of
 tribes as our allies, the Fantees, and
 their respective dialects differ only in a
 slight degree. The genius of two or
 three nobles created the Ashantee na-
 tion, founded it's capital, Coomassie, de-
 veloped the gold mines of the country,
 and finally spread it's empire to the sea-
 coast on the west and on the east to
 Buntookoo, Q semi Moslem city, which
 has never yet been reached by any
 European. The King of Ashantee is a
 constitutional monarch, but with much
 absolute power. ca his accession he is
 warned by his principal nobles that if
 he does not adhere to certain funda-
 mental laws, he will be dethroned but,
 on the other hand, he can tyrannize
 over individual persons. He and his
 people are Pagan, though there is a
 Moslem quarter in the capital, the Mo
 hammedans being traders from the
 countries watered by the Niger. The
 King is allowed to have 3, 333 wives, but
 not to exceed that number. Some of
 these ladies are merely slaves, who work
 in the royal plantations and furnish the
 Court with cassada and plantains 1; others reside in rooms luxuriously fur nished, guarded by eunuchs, enjoying the delights of tobacco and palm wine in true Oriental style.
 Intrigue with royal wife is punished by death :; the executioners torture the offender from sunrise to sunset, leading him about the town and performing fan tasias upon his body with knives before houses of all noted chieftains or stran- gers of distinction. Finally, they lead him to the presence of the king, and literally cut him to pieces before the throne. This horrible method of exe- cution is only employed for the above mentioned offense and for the crime of murder. It is a curious custom in Ashantee that if tho condemned man cries out certain word or phrase he cannot be killed, it gives him the right of sanctuary the exc cutioners, there fore, steal upon their victim from be- hind, and commence proceedings by passing dagger through both cheeks, "hC4CUy UAAO uAebA 10 SAO OpAfC4J SdSS0us When the king dies, nu mber of lords jn-waiting kill themselves to serve as his escort to the Shadow Hand. These wear peculiar gold badge which indi- oates their office. At that time also saturnalia of blood is celebrated hun dreds of victims are sacrificed, and the young men of the royal house run about thn town chnofinor Uuhopo Ahor- r,1ooco even the higest personages of the land Thus the death of the king is national misfortune, and that, perhaps, gives the clue to the origin of these extra ordinary customs.
 The Ashantees believe in life after death as we believe in the existence of lands beyond the sea. Their Hades or Scheol is situated underground :; there this life is continued, and becomes eter- nal. The King resumes his royalty, and the slave remains a slave. Death, therefore, for them is only migration, and they depart from life with equan- imity. A woman slave, who was one of those condemned to die, was stripped according to custom, and knocked on the head. Being only stunned by the blow, she recovered her senses, and saw herself surrounded by dead bodies. She ran into the town, found the nobles sitting in council, told them she had been to the land of the dead, and that l she had been sent back because she had ] no clothes. They must dress her finely l and kill her over again, which accord ! ingly was done. This happened in small kingdom adjoining Ashantee, the laws and customs of which are the same. r
 The coast people have proverb, 'In the Ashantee soup there is too much salt, in allusion to the cruelties prac- tlced by that people. l am inclined to | believe from the accounts given by the ! old voyagers that the coast tribes were quite as barbarous, but that their manners have been improved by contact with Europeans, who are never slow to express their contempt for witch burnings, the torture of prison CTS, and the like. But. as matters stand, the Ashantees justify the prov erb, and certainly surpass not onl ly the Fantees, but also the Dahomeans in Coomassie. On gala days the chiefs appear in the market place, their arms so heavily loaded with nuggets that they are forced to rest them on the necks of slaves. One noble, who had committed some crime, offered large ransom for his life, and finally his weight in gold. But the king cut off his head and also took possession of his gold, which just amounted in weight to that of the corpse. I have myself seen coast native of no great import ance with e1 ,O00 worth of gold upon him and most of that gold came from the mines of Ashantee.
 Finally, as to war. The Ashantee ar- my is the nation. When the order for the march is given all able-bodied men join their respective companies, and leave the town, carrying with them kind of meal as food. The women then parade the streets, and if they detect man skulking behind, beat him un- mercifully. In battle the generals oc- cupy the rear, and cut down all those who retreat. If the battle is lost, they kill themselves. One suicide of this kind witnessed on the Volta. A bat tie took place between our allies and some allies of the Ashantees. The lat ter were defeated, and the Ashantee chief, who was present, threw the in- signia of his rank into the river, and then, sitting on 8 powder-barrel, blew himself into the air.''
 Brave Boy and Robber.