Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/743

Rh ASHANTEE, or, a in, in the interior of the , the extent and population of which can only be approximately given. Stretching from undefined 5° to 9° N., and from. 0° to 4° W., it comprises about 70,000 English square miles, and its population has been variously stated at from 1,000,000 to 3,000,000. Tradition represents the Ashantees as deriving their origin from bands of fugitives, who, two or three centuries ago, were driven before the Moslem tribes migrating south ward from the countries on the Niger and Senegal. Hav ing cleared for themselves a region of impenetrable forest, they defended themselves with a valour which, becoming part of their national character, raised them to the rank of a powerful and conquering nation. They are supposed to be originally of the same race as the Fan tees, nearer the coast, and speak the same language. The separation of Fantees and Ashantees is ascribed to a famine which drove the former south, and led them to live on fan, or herbs, while the latter subsisted on san, or Indian corn, &amp;lt;tc. (whence the names Fantees and Santees). Ashantee proper is covered with almost impenetrable forest, the routes through which consist merely of narrow winding tracts, where, though it is possible for a man to ride, or a palanquin to be carried, no waggon of any de scription could pass. Many of the trees attain splendid proportions, but the monotony is oppressive, and is hardly ever relieved by the sight of either bird or beast. The country round the towns in the interior, however, is cul tivated with care, the fields being kept clean, and yielding in abundance grain, yams, vegetables, and fruits. The ter ritory yields also a considerable quantity of gold. The Ashantees are skilful in several species of manufacture, particularly in weaving the great African fabric of cotton. Their pottery and works in gold also show skill, thoiigh surpassed by those produced in the more southern countries. A large quantity of silver-plate and goldsmith s work of great value and considerable artistic elaboration was found ia 1874 in the king s palace of Coomassie, not the least remarkable objects being masks of beaten gold. The in fluence of Moorish art is perceptible in everything. The government of Ashantee is a mixture of monarchy and military aristocracy ; the lower orders being held in complete thraldom, and liable to be put to death or sold into slavery at the will of the chiefs. The king carries on all the ordinary administration of the state ; but in ques tions relating to peace or war he is bound to consult the council of the caboceers or captains. Each of these cabo- cecrs keeps a little court, where he makes a profuse display of barbaric pomp. Polygamy is indulged in to an enor mous extent, the king has a regular allowance of 3333 wives, but many of these are employed as guards or in menial services. The crown descends to the king s brother, or his sister s son, not to his own offspring. The dreadful system of human sacrifice, practised among the Ashantees, is founded on a wild idea of piety towards parents and other connections the chiefs fancying that the rank of their dead relatives in the future world will be measured by the number of attendants sent after them. There are two periods, called the great Adai and little Adai, succeeding each other at intervals of eighteen and twenty- lour days, at which human victims, chiefly prisoners of war or condemned criminals, are often immolated to a monstrous extent. On the great Adai, which always falls on a Sunday, the king visits the burial-grounds of the princes and the royal mausoleum at Bantama, where the skeletons of his predecessors their bones held together &amp;lt;y links of gold sit in grim mockery of state. Still more tir-.Mdful is the &quot; custom &quot; celebrated after the death of the Lin % or any member of the royal house. 1em 1em 1em 1em 1em 