Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee. 383 
red ochre; and from the abundance of iron ore in the neighbour- 
hood, I do not doubt it is. 
<¢ The walls still soft, they formed moulds or frame-works of 
the patterns in delicate slips of cane connected by grass. The two 
first slips (one end of each beiny inserted in the soft wall) pro-, 
jected the relief commonly called mezzo: the interstices were then 
filled up with the plaster, and assumed the appearance depicted. 
The poles or pillars were sometimes encircled by twists of cane 
intersecting each other, which being filled up with thin plaster 
resembled the lozenge and cable ornaments of the Anglo-Norman 
order ;—the quatre-foil was very common, and by no means rude 
from the symmetrical bend of the cane which formed it. I saw 
a few pillars (after they had been squared with the plaster) with 
numerous slips of cane pressed perpendicularly on to the wet sur- 
face, which being covered again with a very thin coat of plaster 
closely resembled fluting. When they formed a large arch, they 
inserted one end of a thick piece of cane in the wet clay of the 
floor or base, and bending the other over, inserted it in the same 
manner ;—the entablature was filled up with wattle-work plas- 
tered over ; arcades and piazzas were common. A white-wash 
very frequently renewed was made from a clay in the neighbour- 
hood. Of course the plastering is very frail, and in the relief 
frequently discloses the edges of the cane, giving however a pi- 
quant effect auxiliary to the ornament. The doors were an en- 
tire piece of cotton wood, cut with great labour out of the stems 
or buttresses of that tree; battens variously cut and painted were 
afterwards nailed across. So disproportionate was the price of 
Jabour to that of provision, that I gave but two tokoos for a slab. 
of cotton wood five feet by three. The locks they use are from 
Houssa, and quite original ;—one will be sent to the British 
Museum. Where they raised a first floor, the under room was 
divided into two by an intersecting wall to support the rafters 
for the upper room, which were generally covered with a frame- 
work thickly plastered over with red ochre. I saw but one at- 
tempt at flooring with plank ; it was cotton wood shaped en- 
tirely with an adze, and looked like a ship’s deck. The windows 
were open wood-work carved in fanciful figures and intricate 
patterns, and painted red; the frames were frequently cased in 
gold about as thick as cartridge paper. 
‘¢ What surprised me most, and is not the least of the many 
circumstances deciding their great superiority over the generality 
of Negroes, was the discovery that every house has its cloace, be- 
sides the common ones for the lower orders without the town. 
They were generally situated under a small archway in the most 
retired angle of the building; but not unfrequently up stairs 
within 
