AGGRI BEADS. 
121 
the charms which were lying in front of her, placed a 
few grains on the musical instruments, and held the 
heads of the fowls near the rice, which they picked up 
eagerly. It appeared to me that the people were 
pleased at this, and the fowls were removed out of sight 
alive. A young kid was now brought forward by the 
same old man, and presented to the woman who tried 
whether it would eat rice ; but not a single grain being 
eaten, she handed it over to the old man, who after 
murmuring a few unintelligible words, not addressed to 
anybody as far as I could observe, took it by its hind 
legs, and with all his sti-ength struck its head three or 
four times on the ground, then turning it round swiftly, 
he seized its head with both hands and knocked its body 
several times on the ground with such violence that every 
bone of the poor creature must have been broken. 
When the kid was dead, the people walked off, and the 
ceremony seemed to be over.” The proper solution to 
the above was : “ that the woman had been obliged to 
drink ‘ Sassy water,’ which not having proved fatal, this 
observance was gone through as an offering to the 
Gregres, and a proof of her innocence.” 
Witchcraft, adultery, and domestic quarrels are the 
offences for which “ Sassy water” is mostly administered. 
We have referred to the Aggri bead as one species 
of the country money and a most valued ornament ; it is 
a cylindrical, light coloured bead, exactly the same as some 
of those now exhibited in the British Museum, taken from 
the Egyptian sarcophagi. These are much appreciated, 
especially by the Krus, and each one passes current at the 
