and Inhabitants of the Gold Coast. 77 



It appears too, that the Arabs whom Pliny, King Juba, and 

 other ancient writers, affirmed to have settled from Syene as 

 far- up as Meroe, have since that time penetrated south-west- 

 ward into the interior of Ethiopia ; for in the accounts and the 

 MS. charts, which I received from the natives, Wadey was 

 always distinguished as the first Arab dominion, and that people 

 were said to use a different diet, and their ambition only to be 

 repressed by the great power of the Emperor of Bournou. 

 This progress of the Arabs inland, must also have contributed 

 to the dislocation of the Ethiopic or negro nations. 



The few extraordinary superstitions, which cannot be assimi- 

 lated to the Egyptians, may be considered for the most part as 

 pure Ethiopic, as is, probably, their original and poetical 

 tradition of the Creation . 



That the Ashantee customs may have again been a little 

 diversified by intercourse with the Carthaginian colonies, which 

 settled south of the Niger, appears probable from some habits 

 I have recorded, particularly that of spilling a little liquor on 

 the ground as an offering to the Fetish or Deity, not only in 

 their sacrifices, as we read in the Greek and Roman writers, 

 but invariably on common occasions, a domestic custom which 

 Homer also attributes to the Trojans. 



The Phoenicians confessedly made human sacrifices, and 

 " frequently even of those who were most dear to them,*' al- 

 though these sacrifices were early discontinued, as well as in 

 Egypt, without our being told why. The Phoenician priests 

 were in the habit of cutting their bodies with knives and lancets; 

 those who pretend to sudden inspiration, (or that the Fetish 

 has come upon them,) in Ashantee, lacerate themselves dread- 

 fully by rolling over the sharp points of rocks, beating them- 

 selves, and tearing their flesh with their own hands, so as to 

 present the most shocking spectacles. The Phoenician priests 

 also worked themselves to the height of frenzy by dancing, 

 and the violent exercise of their voices, and then raved or 

 prophesied, as if possessed by some irresistible power. I have 

 frequently seen the Fetish women or priestesses in Ashantee, 

 (and I think I was told that the priests did so too,) dancing or 



