THE EXPLORERS' CHRISTMAS 199 



experience, and if it were -it would be intolerable. On 

 the Gold Coast, under scorching Afric's sun, every one 

 of the Ashanti expedition, British born and natives, 

 all her Majesty's faithful subjects, celebrated each in 

 his own fashion the Christmas of 1895. Social customs 

 and influences are as pervading and potent in their 

 operation as the laws of nature, else how could it have 

 come about that Fantee, Ashanti, Kroo-boy, Sierra 

 Leone boy, Mohammedan Houssa, and all the fetish- 

 worshipping West African negroes tacitly agreed to 

 settle their feuds and make merry at that festive season? 

 Their natural disposition towards mirth and jollity, con- 

 sidering their lights, was wonderful, and their mode 

 of manifesting their; feelings was often peculiarly 

 characteristic of the untutored heathen. People ' put 

 by ' for keeping Christmas in all sorts of ways. The 

 West Coast ordinarily docile savage has a terrible 

 fashion of his own which he observes when Christmas 

 comes about. It is the chosen period for settling scores, 

 but in a manner altogether at variance with the message 

 of ' peace and goodwill.' Alas ! there is much 

 humanity but scant divinity in old paganism. The 

 ' Sambo ' who has- a grudge against white or black 

 gets his friends to aid him, and together they waylay 

 the victim, and maul him with fists and clubs, or 

 mayhap knife him. Then * Sambo/ his passion 

 calmed with exercise and assuaged by his victim's 

 wounds, forgets his cherished wrongs, and feels he 

 has not lived in vain. A happy mortal, with quickened 

 gusto he enters into the other more legitimate enjoy- 

 ments of the occasion. Youth in its fervour first 

 brought home to everybody at Cape Coast Castle that 

 Christmas Eve had come. Bands of youngsters of 



