WHOLESALE EXECUTIONS. 627 



assemble in a mourning procession before the house in which a 

 panther is adored as a god. Howling and lamenting they 

 represent to him their distress, and beg him to send them rain, 

 as otherwise they must all die of hunger. The Watjas pray to 

 the new moon to give them strength for labouring, and the 

 Aminas go even so far as to implore their god to pay their debts. 



The sacrifices or gift offerings of the Negroes generally consist 

 of various kinds of household animals, or fruits of the earth ; but 

 in the kingdoms of Ashantee and Dahomey, human sacrifices 

 are prevalent to a frightful extent. As the kings and black 

 nobility ascend, after death, to the upper gods, with whom they 

 are to enjoy eternally the state and luxury which was their 

 portion on earth, a certain number of slaves, proportionate to 

 their dignity, is sacrificed for the purpose of serving them in 

 their new condition. Bowdich* relates that the king of 

 Ashantee, on the death of his mother, butchered no less than 

 3,000 victims, and on his own death this number would 

 probably be doubled. The funeral rites of a great captain were 

 repeated weekly for three months, and 200 persons were slaugh- 

 tered eacli time, or 2,400 in all. These wholesale executions, 

 the details of which are too horrible to relate, still subsist to 

 the present day, for the negroes cling with remarkable tenacity 

 to their ancient customs, and this is perhaps the principal 

 obstacle to their civilization or improvement. 



The belief, so common among barbarous nations, that after 

 death the spirit of the deceased still feels the same wants as 

 during life, and the same pleasure in their gratification, leads 

 to similar atrocious murders in other African countries, though 

 probably nowhere on so gigantic a scale as in Ashantee. Thus 

 the chiefs of Unyamwesi are generally interred with cruel rites. 

 A deep pit is sunk, with a kind of vault projecting from it ; in 

 this the corpse, clothed with skin and hide, is placed sitting, 

 with a pot of malt liquor, whilst sometimes one, but more 

 generally three, female slaves, one on each side and the third 

 in front, are buried alive to preserve their lord from the horrors 

 of solitude. The great headmen of the Wadoe are interred 

 almost naked, but retaining their head ornaments, sitting in a 

 shallow pit so that the forefinger can project above the ground. 



* Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, 1819. 



