338 William F. Daniell, Esq., on the Ethnography of 



those hospitable entertainments of Europeans in their own country, 

 though at another season, it has acquired the designation of the 

 Akkrah " Christmas." On Soah, the first day of its celebration, 

 the Occhds and other influential personages of the town, bestow 

 liberal donations of cloth, beads, and other desirable articles, on their 

 wives, families, and near relatives ; and at the same time, transmit 

 to their patrons and respective fathers-in-law a large log of wood, 

 which to the latter is an acknowledgment of their consanguinity. 

 The door-frames, window-sills, and other wooden work of the houses, 

 are now partly covered with a red ochre, and in honour of the dead 

 their family graves are equally adorned by the same florid colour. 

 In former years a thorough purification of the houses, with other 

 sanatory measures, appear to have been instituted ; but latterly, this 

 and the preceding custom are imperceptibly falling into disuse, and 

 doubtless ere long will become obsolete. 



During the continuance of this festival a remission of all public 

 business occurs, and the daily avocations of the labouring classes are 

 almost suspended, one predominant train of thought alone pervading 

 every grade, both high and low, rich and poor, viz., the unlimited gra- 

 tification of their passions, and an anxious determination to avail 

 themselves of every opportunity for self-indulgence which this interval 

 of jollity and relaxation can afford them. The men, dressed in their 

 best attire, with fillets of cloth or twisted handkerchiefs encircling 

 their heads, parade through the town in noisy communities, accom- 

 panied with drum and horn ; and, as if mimicking the bacchanalians 

 of old, exhibit the most equivocal dances and grotesque attitudes. 

 The women, left to their own resources, assemble in picturesque 

 groups, and, like the men, express a similar delight in the participa- 

 tion of these enjoyments ; they also perambulate the streets, visit 

 their friends and connections, and elaborately decorate themselves in 

 their favourite costumes of silk and chintz. Gold rings and chains, 

 fancy beads of every hue, bracelets, and armlets of divers construction, 

 with the conspicuous aid of white and yellow figures or patches of 

 paint, to ornament the features, contribute to gratify their self- 

 esteem, and sufficiently testify to their love of finery, desire of con- 

 quest, and that inherent vanity characteristic of the sex. 



Among the men, intoxication, committed to excess, from copious 

 libations of rum, constitute in their estimation, the suinmum bonum 

 of happiness ; and they who have not the means of thus distinguish- 

 ing themselves, when passing abroad or elsewhere, conceal their 

 poverty by carefully imitating the gait and erratic vagaries of their 

 drunken compeers. In conformity with the primitive ordinances of 

 the country, a species of large fish named Chille, caught at this 

 period of the year, and until now prohibited from public use by 

 the fetishmen, furnishes the chief constituent in their palm oil and 

 other soups, being eaten with a certain pudding, or rather meal, 

 termed Kou, made from ground maize mixed with palm oil and a 



