284 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
The inferior retainers of Quatchie Qtiofie gave four ackies of gold, 
and eight fathoms of cloth each. I was told these contributions 
were unusually small, from the command of the King that the 
greatest economy should be observed in every expenditure of 
powder, on account of the approaching war. 
We walked to Assafoo about twelve o'clock ; the vultures were 
hovering around two headless trunks, scarcely cold. Several troops 
of women, from fifty to a hundred in each, were dancing by in 
movements resembhng skaiting, lauding and bewailing the deceased 
in the most dismal, yet not discordant strains ; audible, from the 
vast number, at a considerable distance. Other troops carried 
the rich cloths and silks of the deceased on their heads, in shining 
brass pans, twisted and stuffed into crosses, cones, globes, and a 
fanciful variety of shapes only to be imagined, and imposing at a 
small distance the appearance of rude deities. The faces, arms, 
and breasts of these women were profusely daubed with red earth, 
in horrid emulation of those who had succeeded in besmearing 
themselves with the blood of the victims. The crowd was over- 
bearing ; horns, drums, and muskets, yells, groans, and screeches 
invaded our hearing with as many horrors as were crowded on our 
sight. Now and then a victim was hurried by, generally dragged 
or run along at full speed ; the uncouth dress, and the exulting 
countenances of those who surrounded him, likening them to as 
many fiends. I observed apathy, more frequently than despair or 
emotion, in the looks of the victims. The chiefs and captains were 
arriving in all directions, announced by the firing of muskets, and 
the pecuhar flourishes of their horns, many of which were by this 
time famihar to us ; they were then habited plainly as warriors, 
until it is dangerous to do so any longer : they bury it in their house, with as many gold 
ornaments as they can afford to dedicate. The men called the town drummers are only 
allowed to die standing, and when expiring are snatched up, and supported in that 
posture. In Ahanta tliey frequently exhibit the body chalked ail over. 
