ers
that we shall ere long witness with our own eyes."

"What are the stories?" I asked, keenly interested. "Tell me one."

"There are so many," he answered, "I do not know which one to tell. One,
however, will illustrate the awe with which the Naya is regarded, even by
the powerful Prempeh, King of Ashanti. A story is current that one day,
many moons ago, the King had ordered a great 'custom' to take place in
Kumassi. War had been declared against the Queen of the English, and in
order to obtain the good graces of the fetish a thousand slaves were
ordered to be sacrificed. All was ready and the king sat upon his stool
awaiting the decapitation of the first victim, when suddenly there swept
down from above a large white dove, which, after circling for a moment
above the monarch's umbrella, perched upon the edge of the execution
bowl. The executioner swept it aside with his ready sword, but in an
instant, by some invisible power, the broad-bladed weapon fused and
melted as if in a furnace, while the executioner himself, struck down as
if by lightning, fell upon his face stone dead. Still the dove remained
where it had perched with its head turned towards the ruler of the
Ashantis. A second executioner, ere it was discovered that the first was
dead, struck at the bird with his hand, and he too, as well as a third
and fourth, were similarly smitten with death. 'It is an evil omen!' the
people cried, and Prempeh, his eyes rivetted upon the white,
innocent-looking bird, trembled. Suddenly, one of the sages at the king's
right hand cried: 'See, O Master! It is the Great White Queen, the ruler
of Mo! She taketh the form of a dove when she seeketh the destruction of
her enemies!' Then spake the dove, saying: 'Yea, O hated king who
sheddeth the blood of the innocent and exalteth the guilty. The sacrifice
of victims to the fetish shall not avail thee, for I, Naya of Mo, tell
thee that thy downfall is at hand, and thine enemies the English will
press their way from the great sea, bridge the Prah, and cut a road
across the great forest to this thy capital, where thou shalt make abject
submission to their head-man and shall be carried into degrading
captivity by them. Thy treasures shall be seized, the tombs of thy
fathers shall be opened and desecrated, thy fetish-trees shall be cut
down and thy slaves shall revel in thy palace. And it is I, in my present
form, who shall guide the white men unto their victory.' The king,
dumbfound