230 FETISH CEREMONY. 



had my poor men lived, I would have gone up 

 thither in the long-boat. I was informed that 

 Braham, the interpreter, who joined us at Cape 

 Coast and defrauded Mr. Lander, was now at 

 Addacoodah quite well. 



The queen sent to-day, to inform me that she 

 has been very much engaged and unable to come 

 on board, and that to-morrow, being a fetish- 

 day, she begged me to send her some gunpow- 

 der. I was told that the king and his people 

 were going to fire guns all day and all night. 

 This, it appears, is a fetish ceremony before 

 signing the agreement to which we came, by 

 mutual consent, a day or two ago. 



In the opinion of these people, it is absolutely 

 necessary to make fetish previous to undertak- 

 ing the important ceremony of writing on paper, 

 small pieces of which, containing passages from 

 the Koran, written by the Mallams, are fre- 

 quently to be met with : I therefore sent the 

 queen six canisters of powder, for which she 

 returned her gracious thanks. I had been en- 

 gaged in an attempt to write out this agreement 

 in the Houssa language ; but owing to its being 

 so barren, I was obliged to relinquish my object. 



