10 



THE GOLD COAST, ASHANTI, AND KUMASSI 



ASHANTI WOMEN 



Fro7n a photograph by Skues, Cape Coast Castle 



great splendor, and containing a population variously estimated 

 at from 40,000 to 100,000. But the first view convinced me that, 

 whatever Kumassi may have been in the past, it was now but a 

 poorly built town of a few thousand huts. Later and more care- 

 ful observations confirmed me in this estimate. 



Some writers assert that the Fantis and Ashantis originally 

 occupied the country south of the Kong mountains, near tlie great 

 bend of the upper Niger. The Mohammedan tribes drove them 

 south as far as the coast, where they were forced to stop. As the 

 two peoples undoubtedly sprang from the same stock, the natural 

 boundaries of rivers and hills, among other causes unknown to 

 African history, were probably the first dividing lines in their 

 development as separate nations. The languages of both are 

 derived from the Tshi tongue and differ in only a few words and 

 idioms. Their customs, folk-lore and legends, supernatural dei- 

 ties and fetich worship, dress, and physical characteristics are 

 almost the same, but the Fanti, through the civilizing influence 

 of his contact with Europeans, extending over four centuries, has 

 abandoned many of the savage practices which still obtain among 

 the Ashantis. 



For three centuries Ashanti has maintained its existence as a 



