110 PROCEEDINGS OP THK ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



Fantees, but never amongst the Ashantis, neither have I met with 

 Guinea worm amongst them. It may he mentioned here that the 

 Kroo boys inoculate their children for yaws. Like all African races 

 the Ashanti's most vulnerable site for disease is the lung. Acute 

 disease of the lungs is the most frequent cause of death. They know 

 this and a slight attack of bronchitis, pleurisy or pneumonia is quite 

 sufficient to make them turn their face to the wall and die. 



In isolated villages where intermarriage is prevalent one finds 

 a great deal of physical deformity and dementia. One village I 

 have in mind is Odumassi, 30 miles north-east of Knmasi. I saw 

 hunchbacks, club feet, dements, and one man with rudimentary legs 

 and feet so that he had to get about on all fours, his hands being 

 protected by sandals. The chief of this village was a dement and 

 had to be looked after. Tetanus is of common occurrence in Ashanti 

 as it is in other parts of Western Africa. Certain soil known to the 

 natives seems to be a sure cause of this disease, so much so that 

 tribes who use arrows or spears in warfare poison them by sticking 

 them into the soil or smearing them with it. 



The Ashantis are good carpenters, carvers, house-builders and 

 potters. In all this they are superior to the Fantee and South 

 African races. The better class of house (Fig. 1) is built of a double 

 framework of wood. This framework is filled in and Hushed with 

 " swish," a mixture of clay, wood and vegetable ash, this again 

 being smoothed over with a grey clay which becomes hard and 

 impervious to rain, giving the house the appearance of being built 

 of concrete. The houses are thatched with palm branches and 

 plantain leaves. The thatch is fixed on to a frame with " tie tie," 

 each frame being 10 x (5 feet or more. Each of these is hoisted on 

 to the roof by ropes made of " tie tie," the thatching being thus done 

 in sections. The thatch would not keep out the rain were it not 

 that the roof is of a high pitch. The rooms are all separate, no 

 room opening into another. The cooking may be done in a kitchen 

 in the back yard if it rains, but it is mostly done in the courtyard 

 (Fig. 4). 



