218 NARRATIVE. 



of splendour and bravery, accompanied by shrewdness, reflection, 

 and ingenuity, a polish of manner, a taste for arts, and a dexterity 

 of manufacture, shewing an advancement that astonishes us in a 

 people called barbarous. 



Whence can this difference arise ? Not from their natural pro- 

 ductions. The same metals, the same superb vegetation, the same 

 soil, the same chmate, exist in both countries. Not from their 

 rehgion, for what can be more luxurious or splendid than the 

 Musselmen of the East. Not from their greater intercourse with 

 strangers, for there the Mandingoes would have the' advantage. 



Is it not then a further proof of the Egyptian origin of the 

 Ashantees, suggested by Mr. Bowdich in his Essay on their 

 superstitions, 8fc^. — a fact which would satisfactorily account for 

 their greater progress towards civilization. 



^ Essay on the Superstitions, Customs, and Arts common to the ancient Egyptians, 

 Abyssinians, and Ashantees, &c., by T. Edward Bowdich, Esq., Conductor of the 

 Mission to Ashantee, &c. &c. Paris, 1821. 



