Part 35 (1/2)

In every town well-stocked and well-regulated markets are held. These supply the natives with the necessaries of life and with the various European manufactures that are in demand. The poorer cla.s.ses subsist almost wholly upon fish. The common drink of the people is palm wine.

At all festivals and public meetings the most cruel acts and brutal customs prevail. Should a chief die, many lives must be sacrificed in his honor; and, on the death of the king, all his personal attendants and many others, male and female, numbering often several thousands, are sacrificed.

The chief employment of the Ashantee agriculturist is clearing the ground from the rank, luxuriant growth which covers it. This he does by means of fire. In this way he clears his ground and spreads it over with a layer of rich fertilizer.

The only agricultural implement is the hoe. This is of the crudest description; but it answers the purpose in a country whose productive soil is flooded twice each year, yielding two crops of most kinds of corn, and an abundance of yams and rice.

The natives lay out the plantations with a good deal of regularity. The cultivated grounds are extensive, though not equal to the wants of the people.

The Ashantees do not smelt ores like some of the African tribes, yet they have blacksmiths and gold-smiths much superior to what we might expect to find among them. There are also dyers, potters, tanners, and carpenters.

The fineness of texture and the variety and brilliancy of coloring in the native cloths would do credit to an English or an American manufacturer. Several specimens of the handiwork of the Ashantees are to be found in the British Museum.

Various insurrections and frequent wars have occurred, in some of which the Ashantees have come into collision with the British nation. Finally, a few years ago, war was formally declared; for the Ashantees paid no regard to treaties formed with neighboring states under the protection of the British flag, and resented bitterly any interference on the part of Great Britain with the slave trade.

They not only insulted and robbed persons trading with the British settlements, but even killed them, in their bitter hatred. At last they took up arms against the British. A war followed, which terminated quite recently, and resulted in the defeat and disbandment of the Ashantees, and in the overthrow of the kingdom.

The capital, as well as the palace, was burned, and the king, in spite of his cunning and duplicity, was finally forced to sue for peace.

A treaty was formed, the conditions of which were most important; human sacrifices were to be abolished, the slave trade discontinued, and honorable commerce protected. Well will it be for Ashantee land if these conditions can be enforced; for the defeat of a native king in Africa means, usually, political chaos and ruin.

Even at the present time many of the Ashantees have thrown off their allegiance to the king; and the kingdom will, no doubt, resolve itself into a number of petty chieftains.h.i.+ps similar to those from which it was formed.

The kingdom of Dahomey is the most celebrated of all the West African countries.

The limits of the kingdom are somewhat uncertain; but the whole country over which the king of Dahomey originally ruled cannot have been less than four thousand square miles.

Formerly, the kingdom was engaged in the slave trade. Whydah, its seaward outlet, was one of the ports where the slavers were loaded with their human cargoes. Now it is an insignificant little town of ruined factories.

The kingdom, since the abolishment of the slave trade, furnishes little of value to commerce, with the exception of olive oil.

The people, and the king in particular, have long furnished the subjects of the most marvelous of stories. Travelers have brought back accounts of the curious serpent house at Whydah. Here are kept the sacred fetich serpents.

The edifice is merely a round structure, with a conical thatched roof.

The hut, as we should call it, is from ten to twelve yards in diameter and seven or eight in height. The walls consist of dried earth, similar to those of the dwellings. Two openings, on opposite sides, furnish the doorways through which these serpent divinities trail their hideous forms, in their pa.s.sage in and out the sacred temple.

Strings of cotton yarn hang from the roof. On the floor, which, like the walls, is whitewashed, are several pots of water.

One traveler found as many as one hundred serpents within the sacred house. Another found but twenty-two on his visit. They were harmless, for their fangs had been removed.

The length of these reptiles varied from one to three meters. They had spindle-shaped bodies, which terminated gradually in a tail one-third the entire length of the body.

They had large heads, somewhat flattened and triangular, but shaped as if the corners had been rounded off. Their necks were somewhat thinner than their bodies.

Their color varied, ranging from a clear yellow to yellow green. Most of them were marked with two brown lines down the back; a few were irregularly spotted. Dr. Repin believed them to belong to the species of non-poisonous reptiles cla.s.sified as pythons and adders.

As he watched them, some ascended and descended the tree trunks placed within the sacred house for them. Others suspended themselves by their tails, balanced themselves above his head, and peered down at him with their narrow eyes. Some were coiled up asleep under the rafters which supported the roof, after a feast from the last offerings of the faithful wors.h.i.+pers.

Strangely, weirdly fascinating as the sight was, and wholly devoid of danger, yet he could but give a sigh of satisfaction as he stepped into the open air.