144 MISSIONARY LIFE IN ASEANTEE. 
his head and the gold plate which he wore, were sent to 
Cape Coast, which led the authorities there to the conclu- 
sion, that Ashantee was secretly concerned in the disturb- 
ances there. The king requested our assistance in writing 
a letter to justify himself to the governor, in which he 
said that he had sent for this chief of Safwi to kill him, 
and therefore asked his excellency to send a messenger as 
witness of the execution, assuring him that this captain 
had gone to war without orders from Coomassie, for Kari- 
Kari had always urged the upholding of peace, &;c. 
We will now describe the funeral festivities of Kokofu. 
After a number of human sacrifices, the king set off, ac- 
companied by five-sixths of the inhabitants of Coomassie, 
and about thirty other victims all bound, and with the knife 
through their cheeks. We were afterwards told that more 
than two hundred human beings were sacrificed, the king 
beheading several with his own hand, who were held up 
before him, that he might not be obliged to stoop. Some 
were shot in the forest, and forty were killed on the first 
day. He was enthusiastically received on his return, and 
we could not escape the horrible entertainment. The 
slaughterers danced in the faint light of the torches, like 
people possessed by evil spirits, as doubtless they were, 
and nearly all were drunk. At the very moment we felt 
the greatest horror of him, the king not only came and 
danced before us, but gave each of us his hand. We had 
always heard that he only did this at private interviews, 
and now, as he strutted along, adorned with gold, and ar- 
rayed in purple, while some supported him under the 
arms, and others swept away the little stones before his 
feet, it was an extraordinary mark of friendship. 
Another strange thing happened on that same evening. 
Some eunuchs approached, armed with bush knives, cry- 
ing " Fwe," " Fwe." Everyone remained sitting, and saw 
the numerous women of the army, and forty-five ladies of 
