latter word 'devil,' and make it signify an evil spirit living in the
upper regions, or our popular heaven, and reigning over Abonsamkru, the
last home of souls, or rather shades of the wicked. Thus _sasabonsam_
would be equivalent to _Erdgeist_, _Waldteufel_, or _Kobold_, no bad
nickname for a miner. The people have a wealth of legend, and some queer
tale attached to every wild beast and bird. In days to come this folk-lore
will be collected.

The gorbellied children are the pests of the settlement. At early dawn
they roar because they awake hungry and thirsty; they roar during the day
when washed with cold water, and in the evening they roar because they are
tired and sleepy. They are utterly spoiled. They fight like little
Britons; they punch their mothers at three years of age; and, when strong
enough, they 'square up' to their fathers.

The first mining business we had to transact was with Kwámina Blay, of
Attabo, Ahin (Ahene) or King of Amrehía, Western Apollonia. He came to
visit us in state on January 28. The vehicle, a long basket, big enough to
lodge a Falstaff, open like a coffin, and lined with red cloth to receive
the royal person and gold-hilted swords, was carried stretcher-fashion by
four sturdy knaves. King Blay is an excellent man, true and 'loyal to the
backbone;' but his Anglo-African garb was, to say the least, peculiar. A
tall cocked hat, with huge red and white plume, contrasted with the dwarf
pigtail bearing a Popo-bead, by way of fetish, at the occiput. His
body-dress was a sky-blue silk, his waist-cloth marigold-yellow, and he
held in hand the usual useless sword of honour, a Wilkinson presented to
him for his courage and conduct in 1873-1874. The Ashanti medal hung from
his neck by a plaited gold chain of native Trichinopoly-work, with a neat
sliding clasp of two cannons and an empty _asumamma_, or talisman-case.
The bracelets were of Popo-beads and thick gold-wire curiously twisted