286 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
the circle, vociferating the dirge. Rum and palm wine were 
flowing copioush^ horns and drums were exerted even to frenzj. 
In an instant there was a burst of musketry near the King, and it 
spread and continued incessantly, around the circle, for upwards 
of an hour. The soldiers kept their stations, but the chiefs, after 
firing, bounded once round the area with the gesture and extra- 
vagance of madmen; their panting followers. enveloping them in 
flags, occasionally firing in all the attitudes of a scaramouch, and 
incessantly bellowing the strong names of their exulting chief, 
whose musket they snatched from his hands directly he had fired. 
An old hag, described as the head fetish woman of the family, 
screamed and plunged about in the midst of the fire as if in the 
greatest agonies. The greater the chief the heavier the charge of 
powder he is allowed to fire; the heaviest charge recollected, was 
that fired by the King on the death of his sister, 18 ackies, or an 
ounce avoirdu poise. Their blunderbusses and long s^uns were 
almost all braced closely with the cordage of the countrj? ; they 
were generally supported by their attendants whilst they fired, 
several did not appear to recover it for nearly a minute ; Odumata's 
old frame seemed shaken almost to dissolution. Many made a 
point of collecting near us, just within the circle, and firing as close 
as possible to startle us ; the frequent bursting of their nmskets 
made this rather alarming as well as disagreeable. The firing 
abated, they drank freely from the bowls of palm wine, religiously 
pouring a small quantity on the ground before they raised them to 
their lips.'* 
* " Hie dvio rite mero libans carchesia Baccho 
" Fundit humi. ^n. v. 
The Ashantees do so not only on solemn occasions, but invariably ; and it would seem 
that the Greeks did, from the following words of Hecuba to Hector, 
