CUSTOMS. 
287 
The principal females of the family, many of them very hand- 
some, and of elegant figures, came forward to dance; dressed, 
generally, in yellow silk, with a silver knife hung by a chain round 
their necks; one with a gold, another with a silver horn; a few 
were dressed as fetish women; an umbrella was held over the grand 
daughter as she danced. The Ashantees dance incomparably 
better than the people of the water side, indeed elegantly; the 
sexes do not dance separately, as in Fantee, but the man encir- 
cles the woman with a piece of silk which he generally flirts in his 
right hand, supports her round the waist, receives her elbows in 
the pahns of his hands, and a variety of figures approximating, 
with the time and movement, very closely to the waltz. 
A dash of sheep and rum was exchanged between the King and 
Quatchie Quofie, and the drums announced the sacrifice of the 
victims. All the chiefs first visited them in turn; I was not near 
enough to distinguish wherefore. The executioners wrangled and 
struggled for the office, and the indifference with which the first 
poor creature looked on, in the torture he was from the knife 
passed through his cheeks, was remarkable : the nearest executioner 
snatched the sword from the others, the right hand of the victim 
was then lopped off", he was thrown down, and his head was sawed 
rather than cut off' ; it was cruelly prolonged, I will not say wilfully. 
Twelve more were dragged forward, but we forced our way through 
the crowd, and retired to our quarters. Other sacrifices, princi- 
pally female, were made in the bush where the body was buried^ 
It is usual to " wet the grave with the blood of a freeman of 
respectabihty. All the retainers of the family being present, and 
the heads of all the victims deposited in the bottom of the grave, 
'AXXa jU,eVj oipga. jce toj jU-eAjyjSsa olvov IvemcJO, 
