448 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
to sow their own seed ; it is round, and the size of an Orleans plum, 
having a very hard shell, the kernel is white, and, after being ex- 
posed to the sun for a few days, becomes even sweeter than a 
filbert. The natives frequently soak them in salt water for a few 
weeks, and relish the rank flavour they then acquire. They form 
the principal food of the lower orders. They have a round orange 
coloured fruit, called Incheema, the size varies from that of a small 
cocoa nut to a large one ; the capsule is very thick, and when cut 
yields a milky juice ; a number of hard, dark brown seeds, sur- 
rounded by a pulp, are found within, the latter only is eaten, and 
when gathered fresh from the tree, is of a very delicious flavour, 
not unlike that of a green gage. If the fruit is suffered to fall 
from the tree, the bruise renders it unwholesome and unpalatable. 
Every dark night, Tom Lawson was sure to direct me to look in 
the direction of what some foolish Europeans had persuaded him 
must be a diamond mountain. It lays about three days eastward 
of Empoongwa in direct distance, but from the fear of the interven- 
ing people, he had been obliged to visit it by a circuitous route, 
which occupied seven days ; he lost the pieces he procured, in a 
skirmish on his return; they illuminated a great circumference. It 
is considered a powerful fetish, and described as a very high 
mountain. I must admit, that when there was no moon, a pale 
but distinct light was invariably reflected from a mountain in that 
quarter, and from no other. 
The red and yellow ochres brought to me, were dug in the 
neighbourhood of a savannah three journies south- eastward of 
Empoongwa, where they insisted there were large pits of strata, 
not only of red and yellow, but of other colours. They believe, 
that if a man attempts to carry off different colours at the same 
time, he is paralyzed on the spot. Gold has never been found in 
this part of Africa. 
