and, in fact, rules over a considerable portion of
it. The natives are remarkable for oratory, and will discourse
fluently on a given subject for hours. A taste for music is also
extensively cultivated, and their taste is evidenced by the native
band at Cape Coast Castle, which plays admirably by ear several of
the most popular English tunes. The Ashantees, and the natives of
the countries contiguous to this coast, build their houses of mud
and sticks, which composition they call '_swish_.'"

MR. WILTON. "They are a more civilized set than the people of
Dahomey; and the Danes have furnished us with a portrait of one of
their kings, whose name was Opocco. Here is the account:--'The
monarch was seated on a throne of massive gold, under the shade of
an artificial tree with golden leaves. His body, extremely lean, and
inordinately tall, was smeared over with tallow mixed up with gold
dust. A European hat, bound with broad gold lace, covered his head;
his loins were encircled with a sash of golden cloth. From his neck
down to his feet cornelians, agates, lazulites, were crowded in the
form of bracelets and chains, and his feet rested on a golden basin.
The grandees of the realm lay prostrate on the ground, with their
heads covered with dust. A hundred complainers and accused persons
were in a similar posture; behind them twenty executioners, with
drawn sabres in their hands waited the royal signal, which generally
terminated each cause, by the decapitation of one or other of the
parties.'

"The Danish envoy was introduced; and passing a number of bloody
heads, recently separated from the bodies, approached the throne.
The magnificent flaming prince addressed him with the following
most gracious questions:--'I would willingly detain thee for some
months in my dominions, to give thee an idea of my greatness. Hast
thou ever seen anything to be compared with it? 'No! lord and king,'
replied the obsequious envoy, 'thou hast no equal in the world!'
'Thou art right,' said Opocco, 'God in heaven does not much surpass
me!' The king drank some English beer from a bottle, and then handed
it to the Dane; the latter took a little, and excused himself by
saying that the liquor would intoxicate him. 'It is not the beer
that confounds thee,' said Opocco; 'it is the brightness of my
countenance which throws the universe into a state of inebriety!'
This same king conquered the brave prince Oorsoock, chief of the
Akims, who slew himself. He