io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



enthronement of his successor. When the King of Ashantee dies, his 

 women destroy his treasures, and general unrestricted license, robbery, 

 and murder prevail in the country ; and a similar season of disorder 

 ensues on the death of the chief in Whydah, Benin, and other states, 

 Waitz remarks, in his " AnthrojDology of Savages," concerning the 

 duration and extent of this license : "Usage has limited the anarchy 

 to a definite and short time, and it is admitted by all that the disorder 

 in no way works a real dissolution of all social bonds, but is only to be 

 regarded as a sudden relaxation of them which, notwithstanding that 

 all sorts of outrage are let loose, is always controlled by custom, and 

 induces no material damage to society." In Ashantee, the season of 

 unrestraint may last for five days ; in other states it may continue for 

 a considerably longer time, as in Loango, where it prevails for several 

 months. In Dahomey, the death of the king is not made known for 

 eighteen months, while the heir, assisted by the two highest ofiicers, 

 reigns in his name during this whole period. The eighteen months 

 seem to mark the time during which a legal anarchy formerly pre- 

 vailed, though it may now have been done away with. 



We have a right to conclude from these facts that a tolerated 

 disorder is an accompaniment of the death of a ruler, and lasts until 

 the accession of a new one. The eighteen months mentioned above 

 were probably originally an interval of that kind ; and, although the 

 deceased ruler is now immediately succeeded by another, the latter 

 still reigns, according to a custom transmitted from that time, not in 

 his own name, but in that of his predecessor, who is not regarded as 

 dead, but only as ineffective. A customary anarchy is also said to 

 have prevailed as a form of mourning after the death of a sub-chief 

 among the Maravis — a fact that agrees with the general explanation 

 of the usage incidentally given by Waitz, who remarks that it " ap- 

 pears to be nothing more than the public mourning of the whole 

 country, which inflicts wounds uj)on itself as individual relatives afflict 

 themselves after the death of a private person." A similar motive 

 possibly prompts the destruction of the king's jewels by his women in 

 Ashantee, and is perhaps re-enforced by a view which has been observed 

 to prevail in earlier stages of civilization, that all that he possesses 

 dies with the owner. Livingstone speaks of a periodical lawlessness 

 among the Banyai, which ceases upon the election of a new chief. A 

 similar custom prevails among the Wahumas of the lake-region, who 

 have in other respects made considerable advances in civilization. 

 These African peoples stand as a rule at a far lower grade of civiliza- 

 tion than the one which the people of the duchy of Carinthia had 

 reached while the custom of legal anarchy as described still existed 

 among them. We are able to study the practice more closely among 

 the African peoples, and make a nearer approach to its origin. Among 

 them it does not appear to be connected with the time when the newly 

 chosen chief ascends the throne, but at an earlier period to have lasted 



