MR. HUTCHISON'S DIARY 
419 
When any public execution, or sacrifice, is to take place, the 
ivory horns of the King proclaim at the palace door, " wow ! wow ! 
wow!" " death! " death, death, death!" and, as they cut off their 
heads, the bands play a peculiar strain, till the operation is 
finished. 
The greatest human sacrifice that has been made in Coomassie 
during my residence, took place on the eve of the Adai custom early 
in January. I had a mysterious intimation of it two days before, 
from a quarter not to be named. My servants being ordered out 
of the way, I was thus addressed, " Christian, take care and 
watch over your family; ihe angel of death has drawn his sword, 
and will strike on the neck of many Ashantees ; when the drum is 
struck, on Adai eve, it will be the death signal of many. Shun 
the King if you can, but fear not." When the time came to strike 
the drum, I was sitting thinking on the horrors of the approaching 
night, and was rather startled at a summons to attend the King. 
This is the manner he always takes to cut off any captain or 
person of rank ; they are sent for to talk a palaver, and the moment 
they enter, the slaves lay hold of them, and pinion them, and 
throw them down ; if they are thought desperate characters, a knife 
is thrust through their mouth to keep them from swearing the death 
of any other, when they are charged with their crime, real or 
supposed, and put to death or torture. 
Whilst I was with the King, the officers, w^hose duty it is to 
attend at sacrifices, and are in the confidence of the King, came 
in with their knives, &c. and a message was sent to one chief to 
say, that the King was going to his mother's house to talk a 
palaver, and shortly after his Majesty rose, and proceeded 
thither, ordering the attendants to conduct me out by another 
door. 
This sacrifice was in consequence of the King imagining, 
