dog-division. These emblems denote consanguineous descent, and the
brotherhood (_ntwa_) of the 'totems' is uniformly recognised. Our guest's
particular ambition is a large state-umbrella, capped with a silver
elephant carrying in trunk a sword. He presently received one sent, at my
request, by Mr. Irvine.

Amongst the elders were scattered small boys, relations of the headmen.
They were all eyes and ears, and in Fanti-land they are formally trained
to make the best of spies. When you see a lad lounging about or quietly
dozing within ear-shot you know at once his mission.

The notable parts of the suite were the swordbearers and the band. The
former carried five _afõa_, peculiar weapons, emblems of royalty. The
blades are licked when swearing; they are despatched with messengers as a
hint to enforce obedience; and they are held, after a fashion, to be holy.
I have never seen more conventional, distorted, and useless weapons. Three
blades showed the usual chopping-bill shape, pierced, like fish-slicers,
with round, semicircular, and angular holes. One, measuring twenty-three
inches and three-quarters, was leaf-formed, dotted with a lozenge-pattern
and set with copper studs. Another was partially saw-toothed. All were of
iron, rusty with the rust of years and hardly sharp enough to cut a pat of
butter. The impossible handles were worthy of the blades, bulging grips
between two huge balls utterly unfitted for handling; four were covered
with thin gold-plate in _repoussé_ work, and one with silver. The metal
was sewn together with thin wire, and the joints had been hammered to hide
them. Cameron sketched them for my coming 'Book of the Sword;' and Ahin
Blay kept his promise by sending me a specimen of the weapon with two
divergent blades used to cut off noses and ears. Bowdich [Footnote:
_Mission_, &c., p. 312] mentions finely-worked double blades springing
parallel from a single handle; here nothing was known about them.