10(5 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANA I OMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



kings and chiefs are better looking, having better features and smaller 

 and better shaped hands and feet. Their dress, men and women, 

 is simply a native or European cotton cloth surrounding the body 

 and thrown over the shoulder ; beneath this both men and women 

 wear a loin cloth. The women generally have a girdle of beads, and 

 wear a piece of cloth fastened to this back and front. For ornaments 

 men wear rings and bracelets made of gold. The rings are worn on 

 all the fingers, some of them very large and of artistic designs designs 

 taken from the stars seem to be the favourite, also Zodiac rings are 

 worn. The women wear rings, earrings, bracelets with gold nuggets 

 and anklets of beads made from agate. Every village of any size has 

 its goldsmith, and every king has his court jeweller. The staple food 

 of the country is plantain, in appearance very much like banana, but 

 very different in taste. The plantain is prepared in the following 

 manner for food : It is stripped of the husk, and a sufficient quantity 

 for the family is put into a wooden trough ; it is then pounded and 

 beaten with a long stick by one of the females, while another keeps 

 turning it between each stroke, dipping her hands in water all the 

 while. This is done until it becomes like a piece of dough in appearance 

 and consistence. The pounding seems to bring it into a homogeneous 

 mass and at the same time mixes it with air. After this it is boiled 

 for a time, and then may be eaten with the product of bruised palm 

 nuts, which may have been boiled with it or separately. Plantain in 

 this form is fu fu = our porridge. Plantain is rich in potash salts, 

 starch, etc. Palm nuts are rich in oils. Flesh meat is eaten when- 

 ever it can be had. Fowls make a favourite dish served up with 

 palm oil and fu fu. Deer (sheep), monkeys, bush rats, inquanas, 

 porcupines, are all eaten by the Ashantis and all West African tribes. 

 They are very fond of " stink fish," which they get from the coast. The 

 fish is in a half-cured, half-decomposed state. / hate seen no leprosy in 

 the country a* a rcsit/l. Yams, cassava, koko, ground nuts, paw paw, 

 all help to form the food of the country. The first three are roots 

 after the potato in taste and in feeding properties. The paw paw 

 is the fruit of a succulent tree, and can be cooked as a vegetable 



