Manufactures of the Kingdom of Ashantee. 27 



impetuous torrents than are witnessed on the coast. The in- 

 fluence of the Harmattan was described as very powerful. Ge- 

 nerally speaking, from the elevation of Ashantee (unfortunately 

 we had no barometer), it was much cooler in Coomassie than at 

 Cape Coast ; indeed, from four to six in the morning there was 

 a severity of cold unknown on the coast. 

 Natural Products. 

 The markets of Coomassie (the capital of Ashantee) were 

 held daily from about eight o'clock in the morning until sunset. 

 Amongst the articles for sale were beef (to us about eight-pence 

 per pound), and mutton cut in small pieces for soup ; wild hog, 

 deer, monkey's flesh ; fowls, and pelts of skins ; yams, plantams, 

 corn, sugar-cane, rice, encrtima (a mucilaginous vegetable richer 

 than asparagus, which it resembles), peppers, vegetable butter, 

 oranges, papaws, pine- apples (not equal to those on the coast), 

 bananas; large snails smoke-dried and stuck in rows_ on small 

 sticks in the form of herring bone; eggs for fetish, pitto, rum, 

 palm-wine, &c. &;c. 



A fruit called boosie* is in great request. It is constantly 

 chewed by the Ashantecs on a journey ; it is said to prevent hun- 

 ger, and strengthen the stomach and bowels ; has a slight bitter 

 aromatic astringent taste, and causes anjncrease of the saliva 

 while chewed. The boosie must be the gooroo-nut which Mr. 

 Lucas describes as one of the articles of trade between Fezzan, 

 Ka-,sina, Bornoo, and the states south .f the Niger. He writes: 

 " Gooroo-nuts which are brought from the Negro states on the 

 south of the Niger, and which are principally valued for the plea- 

 sant bitter that thev communicate to any licjuor in which they are 

 infused :"— And again ; "A species of nut which is much valued 

 in the kingdoms to the north of the Niger, and which is called 

 gooroo." It grows on a large and broad-leafed tree that bears a 

 pod of about eighteen inches in' 'length, in whiclwre inclosed a 

 number of nuts that varies Worn seven to nine. Their colour is 

 a yellowish green ; their size is that of a chesnut, which they also 

 reseml)le in' being covered by a husk of a similar thickness ; and 

 their taste, which is described as a pleasant bitter, is so grateful to 

 those who are accustomed to its use, and so important as a cor- 

 rective to the unpalatable or unwholesome waters ot Fezzan and 

 of the other kingdoms that border on the vast Zahara, as to be 

 deemed of importance to the happiness of life. They are pur- 

 chased at the rate of 12.5, for 100 pods. 



Sal-ammonia is found abundantly in Dagwumba. In the Ashan- 

 tee market, a lump the size of a diuk's egg was sold for 2*-. ; 

 they grind it to mix with their snuff (of which they take large 



• Stcrculia acumiiuita. I'alU.ilc Ucauvuh, Flora tlOuwarc, i. p.41. tab.24. 



quantities), 



