28 Account of the Climate, Natural Prodiccts, Arts and 



quantities), as it gives it a pungency agreeable to them. They 

 also dissolve it in the water ihey give to their cattle, and some- 

 times druik it themselves for pains in the bowels. The Tamool 

 practitioners in the East Indies suppose it to be a useful re- 

 medy in certain female obstructions and morbid uterine enlarge- 

 ments. 



Mr. Lucas writes : " No commercial value appears to be an- 

 nexed to the fleeces which the numerous flocks of the Negro 

 kingdoms aiford ; for the cotton manufacture which the Shereef 

 says is established among the tribes to the south of the Niger, 

 seems to be the only species of weaving that is known among 

 them." In Dagwumba, however, they manufacture a coarse kind 

 of blanket from sheep's wool. 



There is a white grease which has long been called Ashantee 

 grease l)y the natives on the coast, who supposed it to be pro- 

 duced in that country. They use it daily to anoint their skins, 

 which otherwise become coarse and unhealthy. The Ashantees 

 purchase it from the interior, and make a great profit by it ; it is 

 a vegetable butter decocted from a tree called timke'da ; it is 

 doubtless the shea butter of Mr. Park. 



The Ashantees procure most of their ivory from Kong, where 

 they give eight ackies (or AOs.) in barter for a very large tooth. 



The cattle we sav/ in Ashantee were as large as the English, 

 unlike those on the coast, which resemble the Jersey. The sheep 

 are hairy in Ashantee, but woolly in Dagwumba, an open country 

 where they manufacture a close blanket. The horses in Dag- 

 wumba are generally small ; some were described to be fifteen 

 hands higli, but these were never parted with ; and the Ashantees 

 did not desire them, for I never saw but one who rode fearlessly. 

 The horses I saw were like half-bretl galloways ; their legs lathy, 

 with a wiry hair about the fetlock only requiring to be pulled. 

 Their heads were large; dun and mouse colours were said to be 

 common ; they were never shod, and their hoofs consequently in 

 the eye of the European, though not in the native, dispropor- 

 tionate; they were fed on Guinea grass, occasionally mixed with 

 salt, and sal-ammonia was frequently dissolved in the water. 

 The saddles were Moorish, of red leather and cumbersome ; the 

 bridles of twisted black leather thongs, and brass links with a 

 whip at the end ; the bit severe, with a large ring hanging from 

 theniiddle and slipped over the under jaw instead of a curb 

 chain: the stirrups were like largo blow pans and hung very short. 

 Some of the Moors rode on bullocks with a ring through the 

 nose. 



The extent and order of the Ashantee plantations surprised us; 

 yet I do not think they were adequate to the population; in a 

 military government they were not likely to be so. They are 



chiefly 



