CUSTOMS. , 279 
o'clock there was a procession from the palace to the south end of 
the town and back ; the King and the dignitaries were carried in 
their hammocks, and passed through a continued blaze of musketry : 
the crush was dreadful. The next day (Monday) was occupied in 
state palavers, and on Tuesday the diet broke up, and most of the 
caboceers took leave. 
About a hundred persons, mostly culprits reserved, are generally 
sacrificed, in different quarters of the town, at this custom. Several 
slaves were also sacrificed at Bantama, over the large brass pan, 
their blood mingling with the various vegetable and animal matter 
within, (fresh and putrefied,) to complete the charm, and produce 
invincible fetish. All the chiefs kill several slaves, that their blood 
may flow into the hole from whence the new yam is taken. Those 
who cannot afford to kill slaves, take the head of one already 
sacrificed and place it on the hole.* 
The royal gold ornaments are melted down every Yam Custom, 
and fashioned into new patterns, as novel as possible This is a 
piece of state policy very imposing on the populace, and the 
tribatary chiefs who pay but an annual visit. 
About ten days after the custom, the whole of the royal houshold 
eat new yam for the first time, in the market place, the King 
attending. The next day he and the captains set off for Sarrasoo 
before sun rise, to perform their annual ablutions in the river Dah. 
Almost all the inhabitants follow him, and the capital appears 
* In Ahanta, at the Contoom or Harvest custom, each family erects its rude altar, 
composed of four sticks driven in the ground, and twigs laid across the top ; the whole is 
then covered with fresh pulled leaves. A hog, a sheep, a goat, or a fowl is killed, accord- 
ing to the means of the family, and the most delicate parts laid on the altar, a mixture is 
made of eggs, palm oil, palm wine, the blood of the animal slain, and other ingredients, 
and also dedicated to the fetish, in small pots placed on the altar. In a few days these 
altars become so offensive as to render it disagreeable to pass them, but they are never 
removed. 
