38 COCOA 



According to the traditions which have been handed 

 down among the people, the Fantis and the Ashantis 

 originally belonged to the same stock. The coast 

 tribes are considered to be the descendants of an 

 earlier race of settlers, who were driven within narrow 

 bounds by an invasion of Northern people, the parent 

 race of the Fantis and the Ashantis. 



The invading race so the stories go that are told to 

 the pickins (children) was composed of twelve tribes, 

 and each tribe was called by a name that indicated the 

 occupation of its members. Names, of which the 

 English equivalent is Oil Palm, Cornstalk, Plantain, 

 Leopard or some other animal or product familiar 

 to the native, are still common among both the Fantis 

 and the Ashantis. To-day, individual families, as 

 distinct from tribal communities, follow a particular 

 occupation such as farming, weaving, or trading for 

 generation after generation, and they adopt the old name 

 applicable to that occupation, no matter to what tribal 

 family they belong. But in the " once upon a time 

 days," probably, the "leopards" were all members 

 of one, and one only, of the tribal families, whose 

 special occupation was hunting; similarly, the "corn- 

 stalks " were members of a tribal family devoted, 

 probably, to agriculture; and the "oil palms" of 

 another tribal family that specialized in trading. 



In further support of the traditional belief that 

 the Fantis and the Ashantis were originally one people, 

 there is the fact that their languages have a common 

 origin they are both Twi-speaking people. Quite 

 a different language is spoken by the Accra people and 

 other coast tribes. 



A cotton " cloth," as you must have already noticed 

 every day and many times a day since we landed, is a 



