B6 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
The large drums supported on the head of one man, and beaten 
bj two others, were braced around with the thigh bones of their 
enemies, and ornamented with their skulls. The kettle drums 
resting on the ground, were scraped with wet fingers, and covered 
with leopard skin. The wrists of the drummers were hung with 
bells and curiously shaped pieces of iron, which gingled loudly as 
they were beating. The smaller drums were suspended from the neck 
by scarves of red cloth ; the horns (the teeth of young elephants) 
were ornamented at the mouth-piece with gold, and the jaw bones 
of human victims. The war caps of eagles feathers nodded in the 
rear, and large fans, of the wing feathers of the ostrich, played 
around the dignitaries; immediately behind their chairs (which 
were of a black wood, almost covered by inlays of ivory and gold 
embossment) stood their handsomest youths, with corslets of leo- 
pard's skin covered with gold cockle shells, and stuck full of small 
knives, sheathed in gold and silver, and the handles of blue agate; 
cartouch boxes of elephant's hide hung below, ornamented in the 
same manner ; a large gold handled sword was fixed behind the 
left shoulder, and silk scarves and horses tails (generally white) 
streamed from the arms and waist cloth : their long Danish mukets 
had broad rims of gold at small distances, and the stocks were 
ornamented with shells. Finely grown girls stood behind the chairs 
of some, with silver basins. Their stools (of the most laborious 
carved work, and generally with two large bells attached to them) 
were conspicuously placed on the heads of favourites ; and crowds 
of small boys were seated around, flourishing elephants tails 
curiously mounted. The warriors sat on the ground close to these, 
and so thickly as not to admit of our passing without treading on 
their feet, to which they were perfectly indifferent; their caps 
were of the skin of the pangohn and leopard, the tails hanging 
down behind ; their cartouch belts (composed of small gourds 
