170 GoLtp MINING ON THE GOLD Coast. 
thirty-five weights, each with a distinct value, in use in Ashanti, 
and the complete set was curious and very complicated, the 
smaller weights being not larger than tiny seeds. | Gold washing 
was as a rule the work of the women throughout the colony, and 
each woman was furnished with a small wooden bowl which was 
filled with the earth. This earth was repeatedly washed with 
fresh water in the most adept manner, the stones and earth being 
thrown out by the rapid rotary motion of the bowl, until the gold 
was cleaned from all the earth. The gold, owing to its weight, 
sank to the bottom, and the residue was then passed to a smaller 
bowl, and the process repeated until nothing was left but the 
grains of gold. Illustrative of his paper, Mr Maxwell exhibited 
about two hundred gold weights which he collected at various 
towns and places he visited. He also exhibited the skin of an 
Adristus, one of the most deadly snakes known, showing the four 
fangs through which the poison was transmitted. The skins, he 
‘said, were sometimes used for making musical instruments, and 
they were much prized by the Ju-Ju men before the fetish. He 
showed a native lock very like our padlock, with beads attached, 
and the medicine of a Ju-Ju man on the back. He was informed 
that the price paid for this lock to the Ju-Ju men was £1. ‘It was 
much feared by the natives, and it was believed by them that if 
the possessor of the lock had an ill-will towards another person, 
by just turning the lock and mentioning the party’s name, he could 
kill his enemy. He also showed two excellent specimens of 
Agra beads, and stated that if any of these beads were broken, the 
Ashanti law required the owner to be paid seven slaves. The 
value of the beads far exceeded their weight in gold. 
During an interval in the proceedings, afternoon tea was 
supplied to the company, through the kindness of Mr and Mrs 
Sanders of Rosebank. 
At the close of the papers, Mr Sanders proposed a very 
cordial vote of thanks to the gentlemen who had given the papers. 
That, he said, was the first meeting the society had held in 
Lockerbie, and he hoped it would by no means be the last. 
Rey. R. Neill-Rae, Lochmaben, seconded, and the compli- 
ment was warmly awarded. 
The Chairman moved a similar compliment to Mr Cormack 
and the other local members who had taken such an interest in 
