TO DWABEN AND ABANKORO. 
55 
The quarters allotted to us were close by, and our opposite 
neighbour was an Odonko negress, distinguished like the 
rest of her race by several semicircular scars, reaching from 
the temples to the corners of the mouth. This woman 
had two children whom, to our frequent consternation, 
she used to summon home with piercing shrieks from the 
dangerous street. In another court lived a quiet wine 
dealer, who was almost the only male in the place, for with 
the exception of a few cripples and invalids, we had 
met hitherto with scarcely any men. The wife of the 
absent chief was the principal authority, and a stout 
cunning little woman who turned out to be the Fetish 
priestess, acted as her adviser. Our soldiers lodged at the 
end of the village, so as to be as far as possible out of 
Ageana's way, seeing they disliked him most heartily. 
Before leaving us located here, the royal messenger 
granted us permission to walk about and also to visit the 
stream daily, which we felt an unspeakable privilege, 
our sufferings for want of water to wash in having been 
indescribable. We were all tormented by a painful erup- 
tion of blisters, which gradually made its appearance all 
over us, attributable doubtless to the unusual diet, which 
our keepers persisted in peppering to such an extent, 
that we often preferred starving to touching it. The 
soldiers supplied us with a medicine which afforded some 
temporary relief, but it \vas months before we succeeded 
in overcoming this disease. Ageana continued to provide 
us with only one midday meal, which was irregularly sup- 
lied, and though the soldiers sent us occasional presents of 
fufu, it was almost impossible to persuade them that a 
morning or evening meal was at all necessary. 
We were at first permitted to go alone to the brook, but 
after a while it occurred to our guards that this was very 
unbecoming conduct on our part, and thenceforth one of 
the boys always accompanied us. The days passed 
