306 
.MISSION TO-ASHANTEE. 
was made from a clay in the neighbourhood. Of course the 
plastering is very frail, and in the relief frequently discloses the 
edges of the cane, giving however a piquant effect, auxiliary to the 
ornament. The doors were an entire piece of cotton wood, cut 
with great labour out of the stems or buttresses of that tree ; battens 
variously cut and painted were afterwards nailed across. (See 
drawing. No. 5.) So disproportionate was the price of labour to 
that of provision, that I gave but two tokoos for a slab of cotton 
wood, five feet by three. The locks they use are from Houssa, and 
quite original ; one will be sent to the British Museum. Where 
they raised a first floor, the under room was divided into two by 
an intersecting wall, to support the rafters for the upper room, 
which were generally covered with a frame work thickly plastered 
over with red ochre. I saw but one attempt at flooring with plank, 
it was cotton wood shaped entirely with an adze, and looked like 
a ship's deck. The windows were open wood work, carved in 
fanciful figures and intricate patterns, and painted red ; the frames 
were frequently cased in gold, about as thick as cartridge paper. 
What surprised me most, and is not the least of the many cir- 
cumstances deciding their great superiority over the generality of 
Negroes, was the discovery that every house had its cloacae, besides 
the common ones for the lower orders without the town. They 
were generally situated under a small arch way in the most retired 
angle of the building, but not unfrequenily up stairs, within a 
separate room like a small closet, (see drawing No. 3.) where the 
large hollow pillar also assists to support the upper story : the 
holes are of a small circumference, but dug to a surprising depth, 
and boiling water is daily poured down, which effectually prevents 
the least offence. The rubbish and ofJal of each house was burnt 
every morning at the back of the street, and they were as nice and 
cleanly in their dwellings as in their persons > 
