Ashantis, and amongst the Ashantis worse than in the proper Fanti
districts. It certainly reaches as far southwards as Old Calabar, where,
upon the death of Ephraim, a well-known Caboceer, "some hundreds of men,
women, and children were immolated to his manes,--decapitation, burning
alive, and the administration of the poison-nut, being the methods
resorted to for terminating their existence. When King Eyeo, father of
the present Chief of Creek Town, died, an eye-witness, who had only
arrived just after the completion of the funeral rites, informed me that
a large pit had been dug, in which several of the deceased's wives were
bound and thrown in, until a certain number had been procured; the earth
was then thrown over them, and so great was the agony of these victims,
that the ground for several minutes was agitated with their convulsive
throes. So fearful, in former times, was the observance of this
barbarous custom, that many towns narrowly escaped depopulation. The
graves of the kings are invariably concealed, so as, it is stated, to
prevent an enemy from obtaining their skulls as trophies, which is not
the case with those of the common people."[17]

I have said that it is in Dahomey, where the immolation of human beings
is the bloodiest; and I now add that it is in Dahomey where those who
look for the more characteristic peculiarities of the Negro stock, must
search. But it is the bad side which will preponderate; it is the
darkest practices which will develop themselves most typically. What we
find in germs and remnants elsewhere, grow, in Dahomey, to inordinate
and incredible proportions.

The sacro-sanctitude of the snake is doubled in Dahomey.

Slavery, bad along the whole Bight of Benin, is worse, still, in
Dahomey.

In Akkim we find a _female_ colonel. In Dahomey there is an army of
Amazons, as indicated by Mr. Duncan, and as described in detail by
Captain Forbes.

_The Gha._--Accra, and the forts lately purchased from the
Danes--Christiansborg and others,--are the localities of the _Gha_
nation. I say _Gha_ (or _Ghan_) because the author of a paper soon about
to be noticed states, that this is the indigenous name of the people
which we call _Acra_, _Akra_, _Accrah_, or _Inkra_--and it is always
best to give the native name if we can.

Adelung, on the authority of Romer and Isert, gives the following
account of the Negroes speaking the Gha language. He calls it Akra.

They began with conquering and