84 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
death ; the poison is made from vegetables boiled in a large pot, 
and the arrows steeped in it. He shewed me the marks of two arrow 
wounds which he received in battle. He then began to consult his 
fetish, by a quantity of strings, with various ornaments on one end 
to denote their good or evil qualities ; these were mixed promis- 
cuously together, and taking them in his right hand, he put them 
behind his back, and drew out one with his left ; this was repeated 
about 20 times. A wicker basket was then brought on a small 
stool covered with a silk cloth, in it were two lumps like pin- 
cushions, made of eggs, palm oil, &c.: he then turned up the bottom 
of his stool, and making three holes in it with something like a 
cobler's awl, he drove in three pegs with a stone, muttering to 
himself all the time, and waving each string round his right ear ; 
an egg was then brought in broken at one end, and placed alter- 
nately on the lumps in the basket, and crushed on the stool where 
the pegs were put in : this he did every morning before he went 
out, to keep him out of bad palavers through the day. 
Tuesday 30. This morning Apokoo invited me to take a share 
of his umbrella, and attend the King, who went to finish his ablu- 
tions. We walked along through an immense crowd ; the streets 
were lined with the chiefs and their respective suites. We went 
down to the place where the King washes ; a low platform was 
erected where the stools were laid on their sides. The linguists and 
officers of the household stood on one side holding gold rods and 
canes, the fetishmen formed a crescent to the north side. The King 
performed the ceremony of laving the water over himself, sprink- 
ling the various articles the same as on Saturday, and the proces- 
sion concluded as before. 
On walking back Apokoo wished to try on one of my gloves, 
and as usual put it on the wrong hand ; his gold castanets pinched 
him when the glove was on, which made him shout out rather 
