Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-04-20
Savage and Shocking Customs Still in Vogue
in West Africa

IN West A1r1ca.
It is in West Africa that the "per-
sonaI" customs still survive in all their
horror. Again and again an English
trader or traveller has had to look on
these customs, but the horrors were
never fully described till 1873, when the
German missionaries, Bounat, Kuehne,
and Ramseyer, were prisoners in Coo
massie at the time of the native crown
princes death. As soon as he was seen
to be dying the executioners began to
scour the streets for victims. When
they caught any one, two of them would
come behind and each thrust a knife
through the cheek, the blades passing
over the tongue, and a handle stick
ing out on each side. This is to
prevent the poor creature from Swear
ing on the life of the king''-that is.
swearing that if he dies, the king must
die tom which case, instead of being
killed, he would not only be spared, but
ranked among the "Okra" cOurtiers
whose life depends on that of the king,
and who, killed when he dies, hold till
his death places of trust and honor.
Besides those thus caught every great
chief had to offer a victim; but the
number was chiefly made up of slaves
and prisoners of war. The wives
painted white and covered with gold
Ornaments-sat around the coffin, flap
ping off the flies. They were strangled
at the funeral. So were six pages, who,
similarly painted and adorned, sat by
the dead man. They had known their
fate some days before, but none ran
away save three wives of low birth,
whose places were at once supplied by
other girls. For nine days the slaugh-
ter went on, the people fasting, with
shaver heads and bodies painted red,
but drinking all the more. And this
death wake was to be repeated forty
days after.
When a king dies the victims are
slain at the rate of 200 a week for three
months. But there have been q" greater
customs" than these. A kings mother
died in 1916; her son slaughtered 8, 900
people, 1900 being prisoners just cap
tured from the Fantis. To make up
the tale, every big Ashantee town had
to give 100, every smaller town ten
victims.
A royal burial is on this wise: At
the bottom of a hinge grave are laid the
heads Of the slain; on them the coffin
rests. Then, Just before the earth is
thrown in, one of the bystanders-a
freeman, if of some rank so much the
better-is suddenly dubbed, cash
made In the back of his neck, and he is
rolled in upon the coffin. The idea is
to send along with the crowd of slaves
oT11 TlvfcC77 o1.c Coma rv1a vrvbO cho11 1OOIv
after them as a ghOstly major dOmO."
For king there remains yet another
custom" At the end of thirty moons
the grave is opened, the royal bones
fastened together with gold wire and
the skeleton placed In a long building
divided into cells, the dOOrways to which
are hung with silk curtains.
Then on his birthday the King of
Ashantee goes early to the house of the
royal dead. Every skeleton is taken
from its richly Ornamented coffin, where
it has lain surrounded by the things
that had been most pleasing to it In life,
and is placed on chair to welcome the
visitor. As the king enters each cell with
a meat and drink offering to the depart
ed, the band plays the favOFite melodies
of that particular King, and, unawares,
the royal visitor signs to the eXecu-
TONERS who have followed him, and an
attendant is pierced through the cheeks
and killed, the King washing the skele-
ton In the warm blood. The same work
goes on at the next cell, and so on, the
fearful work going on far into the
night. The band plays a signal as each
victim Is slaughtered. Two blasts of
the horn mean death death = three
drum taps, ''cut 1t off, " one beat from
a big drum, the head has fallen. The
signal Is taken up by other bands, and
all through the city hOrn-blOWing and
drUm-beating goes on increasingly. The
Ashantees always say of a drum, 1t
speaks, and every traveller admits that
they manage to elicit from that unman-
ageable instrument most varied range
of sound. The sounds form words, the
whole rhythm a sentence, readily IN
derstoOd by native listeners. Each
chief has his own call, Just as each
Highland clan had It's own battle tune
OF course this constant killing makes
the people calIOus to suffering and
brutal to their prisoners. Their feeling
In regard to death is not courage but
apathy. The spectators are as delight
ed at these revolving customs" as the
Roman populace was at the gladiators'
show. Now and then a victim is tor
tured. The missionaries watched one,
who, besides the knives through his
cheeks, had 8 couple of forks thrust
into his back BE was then dragged
before the king, gashsd al over the
body, his arms cut off, and