and Inhabitants of the Gold Coast. 85 



the aristocracy in Ashantee, who until Sai Cudjo's time, always 

 gained this dignity by inheritance only, could never forfeit their 

 lives, and even now continue to share the territory and the 

 power with the king. 



1 do not recollect to have ascertained that the Ashantees re- 

 tained the remarkable antipathy to beans of the ancient Egyp- 

 tians, but I think it probable, for it is extraordinary that when 

 they were assuring me there was really an Arab nation in the 

 interior, they always distinguished them as " eating beans'* 

 ■ There are many remarkable coincidences of the customs of 

 the Ashantees with those of the Jews. - The British Critic thus 

 notices one in my work, which had not occurred to me. " About 

 ten days after the Yam custom, a sheep and a goat are sacri- 

 ficed in the palace in the afternoon, and the blood is poured 

 over the door-posts. It is scarcely possible but that this rite 

 must be connected with some obscure tradition of the Jewish 

 passover." The Jews too, it well be found, (whether they 

 learned it or introduced it in Egypt,) observed the same pe- 

 culiar delicacy which Herodotus records of the Egyptians, and 

 which has originated in the cloacae of the Ashantees, a refine- 

 ment almost unknown in many European countries*. The 

 Jewish priests received a part of the sacred offerings f. The 

 Jews did not trim their beards when in grief J. There is a 

 servant race or family in Ashantee. The Ashantees will not 

 touch milk : Mr. Hutchison mentions an anecdote in proof 

 of this observation. " A boy brought some milk covered, 

 and Apokoo lifted the lid to look what it was, some of it 

 touched his fingers, and he sent for water, herbs, and dif- 

 ferent things to purify his fingers ; he said he would give me a 

 present if I would give over drinking milk; I told him if he 

 sent me an ounce of gold daily I would not do it ; he cursed 

 the milk, and the boy for bringing it." The strict Jews do not 

 eat cheese, unaccountably founding their abhorrence, as I have 

 been told, on the command in Exodus, " Thou shaltnot seethe 



"• See Deut. xxiii. 12, 13, 14. 

 t Levit. xxxi. t 2 Sam. xix. 24. 



