Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/299

 INHABITANTS OF THE GOLD COAST. 246 is now reduced to the district limited on the south by the wooded hills of Adansi, and a mere threat of the Resident at Accra sufficed to induce the once formidable Ashanti potentate to surrender to the Queen of England, if not his golden axe, at least an imitation of that terrible fetish, symbol of the right of murder which he claimed over his whole people. According to Lonsdale, the Ashanti chiefs would now find it impossible to raise an army of over six thousand men. The Fantis had been the almost constant allies of the British, as the Ashantis had been of the Dutch. General MacCarthy, who died at their head early in the century, had become for them a tutelar deity ; their most solemn oath was taken Fig. 106. — Gold Coast Possessions and Surrounding Districts. Scale 1 : 4,500,000. Depths. to 660 Feet. eCO Feet and upwards. _ 60 Miles. in his memory, and many gave their children the name of Karte, Fanti form of the Irish MacCarthy. Kinsmen, but hereditary enemies of the Ashantis, the Fantis resemble them in disposition and versatility of character. But their manners have changed, and instead of a single monarchical government, they have formed an almost republican confederacy of petty states. Thanks to long contact with Europeans, they have ceased to celebrate their feasts with massacres, and at burials the human victims are replaced by gifts of clothes, ornaments, and the like. Nevertheless the Fanti penal code is still severe, capital punishment being often inflicted for several offences. Amongst these peoples wealth is held in special honour, and till recently justice was sold in the most cynical manner. In lawsuits one of the suitors would challenge his opponent to prove the righteousness of his cause by a better present than his own to the pa'imiu or " elders." Each party then displayed in open court