170 
NATIVE CUSTOMS. 
tributary to another at no great distance from Akassa. 
They admitted that human sacrifices do take place at 
certain Fetiche rites — the victims are slaves. 
The dead are buried in their huts ; if a male, 
and possessed of any articles of dress or household 
furniture, these are, placed for a short time on the 
grave. 
When some of the officers landed, the people ran 
away in affright, hut soon returned, on finding they 
were English, and not Spaniards or Portuguese, which 
showed that the former slave-dealing visitants were not 
over-scrupulous even with their agents, hut occasionally 
made free with them to fill up their numbers. 
They speak the Brass, or Orii dialect : the men wore 
daggers and knives in their girdles. The women were 
much tattocd, particularly over the face. 
Yaws, an affection of the skin, as also leprosy, 
prevailed to a great extent, such as were afflicted with 
these diseases were besmeared with red clay. Dr. 
McWilliam vaccinated four persons at this village, and 
several others at another large one, and explained 
the object to the chief of the place, who was much 
pleased that a white man should take so much trouble. 
Emmery, the Chief of Akassa, visited the ships ; he 
was dressed in a drummer’s coat, a plain black hat, 
rather the worse for wear, and a loose fold of blue cotton 
handkerchief round his lower extremities. He seemed a 
quiet, weU-disposed man. 
While at the mouth of the Nun, a son and a nephew 
