, 1888-07-13
AFRIcA's HUMAN SACRIFICES.
Savage and Shocking Customs stm Prar,
tiosd-A Royal Burial.

savage and Shocking Customs still Prac.
ticsd-A Royal Burial.
It is in West Africa that the personal
customs still survive in all their hor-
ror. Again n again an English trader
or traveller has had to look on these ''cus-
toms, " but the horrors were never fully
described until 1878, when the German
missionaries, Bounat, Kuehne and Ram
seyer, were prisoners in Coomassie at the
time of the native crown princes death.
As soon as he was seen to be dying the
eSecutioners 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 n
handle sticking out on each side. This
Is to prevent h poor creature from
swearing or the life of the ling that
is, swearing that if he dies the king must
die too, in 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 chief
had to offer a victim; but the number
was chiefly made up of slaves and pris-
1850 AAS W III
and covered with gold ornaments-sat
around the coffin, Tapping 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 girls. For nine days the
slaughter went on, the people fasting,
with shaven heads and bodies painted
red, but drinking all the more. And
this death wake vas to be repeated forty
days after.
When a king dies the victims are slain
at the rate of 200 n week for three
months. But there nave been s'greater
customs" than these. A kings mother
died in 1916; her son slaughtered {, 900
people, 1000 being prisoners just cap
tured from the Fantis. To make up the
tale, every big Ashantee town had to
give up 100. every smaller town ten
victims.
A royal burial is in this wise: At the
bottom Of q huge grave are laid the heads
of the slain; ON them the coffin rests.
Then just before the earth is thrown in
one of the b~ystanders-a freeman, if of
some rank SO much the better-is sud
denly dubbed, n cash made in the back
of his neck and he is rolled in upon the
coffin. Tho idea is to send along with
the rowd of slaves and prisoners some
n who shall look after them as a
ghostly major domo."
For a king there remains yet another
''custom." At the end of thirty moons
the grave is opened, the royal bones fas-
tened together with gold wire and the
skeleton placed in long building divided
INTO cells, the doorways to which are
hung with silk curtains.
Then on his birthday the king of Asian
tee 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 which had
been most pleasing to it in life, and is
placed on a chair to welcome its visitor.
As the king enters ZACH cell with a meat
and drink offering to the departed, the
band plays the favorite melodies Of that
particular king, and, unawares, the royal
visitor signs to the executioners, who
have ollowed him, and an attendant is
pierced through the cheeks and killed,
the king washing the skeleton 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 slaugh-
tered. Two blasts of the horn mean
death, death;'' three drum taps, ''cut it
Off" n 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,
''it speaks, " and every traveller admits
that they manage to elicit from that un-
manageable instrument a most varied
range of sound. The sounds form words,
the whole rhythm a sentence, readily
understood by native listeners. Each
chief has his own ''call," just as each
Highland clan has its own battle tune.
OF course this constant killing makes the
people callous to suffering and brutal to
their prisoners. Their feeling in regard
to death is not courage, but apathy. The
spectators are a delighted at the revolt
ing customs as the Roman ~populace
was at the gladiators' show. Now and
then a victim is tortured. The mission
aries watched one who, besides the knives
through his cheeks, had a couple of forks
thrust into his back. He was then dragged
before the king, gashed all over the body,
his arms cut off, and in this plight COM
PEELED to dance for the amusement of the
royal savage.-Al the Year Round.