334 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
titi oners in the East Indies suppose it to be a useful remedy in certain 
female obstructions, and morbid uterine enlargements. Mr. Lucas 
writes. " No commercial value appears to be annexed to the fleeces 
which the numerous flocks of the Negro kingdoms afford ; for the 
cotton manufacture, which, the Shereefsajs, is established among 
the tribes to the south of the Niger, seems to be the only species of 
weaving that is known among them/' In Dagwumba, however, they 
manufacture a coarse kind of blanket from sheep's wool. There is a 
white grease, which has long been called Ashantee grease by the 
natives on the coast, who supposed it to be produced in that country. 
They use it daily to anoint their skins, which otherwise become coarse 
and unhealthy. The Ashantees purchase it from the interior, and 
make a great profit by it : it is a vegetable butter, decocted from 
a tree, called Timkee'a : it is doubtless the Shea butter of Mr. 
Park.* Mr. Lucas mentions, " small Turkey and plain Mesurata 
carpets,'' among the articles exported from Fezzan to Kassina : 
a small carpet fetches 2 oz. of gold at Coomassie. The Ashantees 
procure most of their ivory from Kong, where they give 8 ackiesy 
or 405. in barter, for a very large tooth. 
" The preference of the Ashantees for the Dagwumba and Inta 
markets, for silk and cloth, results not merely from their having 
been so long accustomed to them, but because they admit of a 
barter trade. The Boossee or Gooroo nut, salt, (which is easily pro- 
cured, and affords an extravagant profit,) and small quantities of 
the European commodities, rum, and iron,f' yield them those arti- 
cles of comfort and luxury, which they can only purchase with 
gold and ivory from the settlements on ^he, coast. Gold they are 
* See Sketch of Gaboon, 
f Though h*on is manufactured in Dagwumba, that from Europe is preferred for finer 
purposes. The former is an imperfect steel containing a mechanical mixture of unre- 
duced ore. 
