366 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
Abirrikirri croom ogah odum ; 
French town fire put in ; 
Ocoontinkii bonoo fum ; 
Great fighting man, wolf take you away ; 
Cooroompun coom agwun. 
Cooroompun kills all goats. 
Abirrikirri applies indiscriminately to all nations beyond the sea, 
as Dunko does to all nations far in the interior. Cooroompun is 
a very large insect of the genus mantis (soothsayer) frequently met 
with here, and the natives believe that it kills the sheep and goats 
by fascination, standing with its eyes fixed on those of the object, 
and swinging its head and body from side to side without moving 
its feet, until the animal falls in fits and dies.* Agwun is a noun 
of multitude, comprehending all the goat kind. 
A long tale accompanies No. 6". An Ashantee having been 
surprised in an intrigue with another man's wife, becomes the slave 
of the King, and . is obliged to follow the army in a campaign 
against the celebrated Attah, the Akim caboceer mentioned in the 
history. The Ashantee army havifig retired, this man either 
deserted or could not join his division, and after concealing him- 
self some time in the forest, was taken by a party of Attah's, whom 
he addresses in the following words : 
Eqqwee odin ahi. 
Panther bush here (belongs to) 
* The power of fascination by the eyes, is believed and dreaded in those parts of 
Africa as mortal, whether exercised by the fetish priests against men, or by the cooroom- 
pun against animals. The idea prevailed in Pliny's time, but it was ascribed to the voice. 
" In libro quodam Plinii naturalis historise legi esse quasdam in terra Africa familias 
hominum voce atque lingua effascinantium. Qui si impensius forte laudaverint pulchras 
arbores, segetes laetiores, infantes amoeniores, egregios equos, pecudes pastu, atque cultu 
optimas, emoriantur repente hsec omnia." A cooroompun will be found amongst the 
specimens for the British Museum. 
