The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1881-12-15

-tillSo "
although they went 10 Liberia which l.
a modern colony planted by the Amer
can Colonization Society, aud Is there
fore somewhat civilized and well-con-
Quoted. these Southern darkeys were
Disguised at the first sight OF the coun-
try, and their native brethren. Nearly
all Of them wanted to turn aud come
back on the same ship which carried
them over. But only those who had
money could do SO. The majority were
carried to some huts, 100 back in the
woods, where they all took the fever,
and began to die like sheep. Some
of them wrote back that they would
rather live as slaves In Carolina than
starve as free negroes ID Africa.
About one-third of the ship load died
about 100 of the smarter ones have
come back , while the majority are still
in the huts in the back woods, with
nothing but wild rice, and "a few roots
for food. No stobacco, cotton, milk
fruit, chickens, pigs, dogs, festivals,
cake walks, b%anjos, or other sources OF
African felicity.
These remarks introduce the London
Stundasd's latest report from Congo
J land =
Only recently-so runs the story
some swish was required for the re
pair Of one Of the royal buildings IN
Coomassie. Now, the swish used
in ordinary houses is simply red earth
work ed up with water until 1t thus ac
quiret IA certain degree of tenacltv. But
this vulgar mortar was not sufficient Tor
the Kings purposes. Accordingly, he
directed 200 young girls to be murdered
ia ORDER that blood might be used TO
moisten the clay out OF which the pal
ace walls were to be constructed. This
ferocious mandate was duly executed,
the only Que OF the victims who escaped
! being the refugee who carried the tale to
Cape Coast Castle.
For the sake of human nature one
would fam believe this atrocious soory to
be an invention, though, unfortunately,
it is SO thoroughly in keeping with what
we know of Ashant.e customs, and so
much on a par with similar superstltlons
elsewhere, that we fear there is a large
element of truth in it. even should it,
ever should it prove to be exaggerated
in a few minor particulars. The Ash
antees, like their neighbors the Fions,
of Dahomey, revel in human blood. The
Kings Ochras, or butfoons, are slaugh-
tered when he dies, and the Kings
stool" on which it sprinkled a few droI 5
Of the blood of every person executed,
when last seen was a horrible spectacle
The eXe%cutioners are men of high rink
The most triAing offence is punished by
decapitatiOn, and so familiar is this
scene to the residents in Coomassie that
when the little son of one of the Ger
man missionaries who were freed by
King Koffee on the approach Of our
~troops-was angry with anyone he
would e1claim, Your head will fall
to morrow" The town resembles 4
charnel-house. The piles Of skulls and
bones hcaped up at intervals testify to
the long continuance of these inhuman
| practices, and even when the army OF
Sir Gayuet Wolseley entered the place.
the putrefying bodies, still unburisd,
filled the air with a dreadful stencil.
The story which the Ashantse girl
has brought from Coomassie is a terrible
example of one Of those fearful ''survi
walls" which the ethnologist is daily
unearthing. If the King mixes his
palace swish with the blood-~f 200
virgins. he is only u nineteenth ccntur,
representative Of the twelve mastst
masons who, when the walls of Copen
hagen sank as fast as they were built
vaulted into them an innocent girl a
play, and thus allayed the wrath Of the
Northern ''nisser." The Bridge Of
Arta fell again and again, until the
wOrkmen walled in their masters wife
and we are told that, in accordance
with her dying curse, it trembles to thi.
very day. There is scarcely a churc.
in Germany or Denmark to which some
such legend does not attach, and in
Polynesia temples are pointed out the
foundations of which were Embedded
in human bodies. Two years ago the
native quarters of Madras were wildl,
excited over a rumour that the Govern
nent was about to sacrifice several
victims in order to insure the safety of
the new harbour works, and d few years
earlier the same idea 30 generally pre-
vailed in Calcutta, when the Hocghly
bridge was being constructed, that for
a time the people dreaded to go a rod
after dark lest they should be kidnap-
ped. In Galam in Africa, a boy aud
girl used to be buried alive before the
chief gate of the city as a fetish to make
it impossible to an enemy, and in BAN
bar.a, Great Bassam, and Yarriba the
same custom prevailed or still prevails.
In Borneo, in Japan, in Burmah, and,
in addition TO many other regions, in
the Punjaub, like ideas of the efficacy
Of human victims to insure the safety
of buildings hold their ground. or were
universal within very recent times.
Into each post hole Of the gates ofTavo,
a criminal was placed human victims
were burned under the gates of Man
daIay, and snder the fortress of Tha-
tung a queen is said to have been
drowned in a Burmese reservoir to
make the dixie safe, and the life of q
widows son was ia ken by the Rajah
Of Sialkot with 4 view to insure the sta
piiity of one of the bastions OF bis fort.
1t is therefore more than probable
that the latest story from Ashantee =
substantially true. Human life is al
ways at . discount in these thickly-pop
ulated African Kingdoms. Could the At
rican p~otentates be taught to cultivate
the soil, or to mine the minerals in It,
they would, with their natural shrswd-
ness, speedily discover a more profitable
employment for their subjects and cap
tives han killing them. Sixty years ago
the King OF Ashantee tod NJ. Dupuls
that since the King Of England bad ore
vented him from selling his slaves he
be had to murder them, lest they should
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