inquiries, and replied that the fall of Elmina would be also the fall of Coomassie. The king, who did not expect such an answer, went to an old Ashantee sorceress. But she, having consulted the gods of the country, delivered the same oracleThe fall of Elmina would be the fall of Coomassie.' 'Well,' said the king, what does it matter; Elmina has been from the creation of the world, and so has Coomassie. It is impossible that either can fall.' But Coomassie was destroyed after the destruction of Elmina.

Before we had crossed the Prah, a story came from Akmi that certain omens had alarmed the people of Coomassie; stones fell from heaven; a child was born which spoke from its birth, suddenly it disappeared, and the room was filled with bush. One evil omen did actually occur. Mr. Külm relates that just before he left Coomassie, the old fetish-tree from which the town takes its name, fell down and was shattered to splinters.

"We passed the garden Golgotha (on entering Coomassie)— the carrion-tower, where the bodies of sacrificed victims are deposited; it gave to the whole town an odour of death. I must now explain the philosophy of human sacrifices. Among savage nations it is believed that the body contains a ghost or spirit, or soul, which lives after death. Some believe that this ghost or soul inhabits the grave, and flits around its neighbourhood, and comes to its old home, and frequents the company of those whom it formerly loved. With savages of a higher type it is believed that the souls live in a special world, usually supposed to be under the ground, though some place it above the sky. One step more, and we have the belief of the Persians, and some other ancient nations, that there are two worlds outside the earth, one of torture for the wicked, and one of pleasure for the good.

"Now, it is the belief of savages that not only human bodies have souls, but also animals; and not only animals, but also rivers and trees, and not only things having movement or life, but also inanimate objects-such as food and palmwine, weapons, beads, articles of clothing, willow-pattern plates, and so forth. So in Western Africa, when a man dies food is placed by his grave, and they say that the spirit of the man eats the spirit or essence of the food. On the Gold Coast the natives believe in a world below the ground—a Hades or Scheol-where the soul of the dead dwells in a life that shall have no end. They also believe that all garments he has worn out will then come to life again—a resurrection of old clothes; but besides this, his relations display their affection by giving him an outfit of weapons, ornaments, war-cloth,

crockery-ware, etc., so that he may descend into hell like a gentleman. But who is to carry these things? And who is to look after them? Evidently his wives and his slaves. Soa number of them are killed to keep him company; and often a slave is killed some time after his death to take him a message, or as an addition to his household. In Dahomey this custom of sending messages is organised into a system.

"Thus originated human sacrifice, which is, granting the truth of the theory on which it is based, a most rational one. Death is disagreeable to us because we do not know where we are going; but to a widow of a chieftain it is merely a surgical operation and a change of existence. That explains why the Africans submit to death so quietly. A woman at Akropong, selected for sacrifice, was stripped according to custom, but only stunned, not killed. She recovered her senses, and found herself lying on the ground surrounded by dead bodies. She rose, went into the town, where the elders were seated in council, and told them that she had been to the land of the dead, and had been sent back because she was naked. The elders must dress her finely and kill her over again. This accordingly was done." *

"The English Governess at the Court of Siam," page 219220, has recorded the following dreadful occurrence. It throws a lurid light upon the underlying motive which prompts one of the most terrible of ancient customs-namely, the sacrifice of human life for the sanctification of newlyerected buildings. This lady says:

"While residing within the walls of Bangkok, I learned of the existence of a custom having all the stability and force of a Medo-Persic law. Whenever a command has gone forth from the throne for the erection of a new post, or a new gate, or the reconstruction of an old one, this ancient custom demands, as the first step in the proceedure, that three innocent men shall be immolated, and the site selected by the court astrologers, and at their 'auspicious hour.' In 1865 His Majesty and the French Consul at Bangkok had a grave misunderstanding about a proposed modification of a treaty relating to Cambodia. The Consul demanded the removal of the Prime Minister from the Commission appointed to arrange the terms of this treaty. The King replied that it was beyond his power to remove the Prime Minister. Afterwards, the Consul, always irritable and insolent, having nursed his wrath to keep it warm, waylaid the King as he was returning from

*Told to Mr. Winwood Reade by a German Missionary residing at Akropong when the circumstance took place.

a temple and threatened him with war, and what not, if he did not accede to his demands. Whereupon the poor King, effectually intimidated, took refuge in his palace, behind barred gates, and forthwith sent messengers to his astrologers, magicians, and soothsayers, to inquire what the situation prognosticated. The magi, and augurs, and all the seventh sons of seventh sons, replied "The times are full of ill omen. Danger approaches afar. Let His Majesty erect a third gate on the east and on the west.' Next morning, betimes, pick and spade were busy digging deep trenches outside the pair of gates that on the east and west alike protected the palace. When all was ready, the San Luang, or secret council of royal judges, met at midnight in the palace, and dispatched twelve officers to lurk around the new gates until dawn. Two, stationed just within the entrance, assume the character of neighbours and friends; calling loudly to this or that passenger, and continually repeating familiar names. The peasants and market folks, who are always passing at that hour, hearing these calls, stop and turn to see who is wanted. Instantly the myrmidons of the San Luang rush from their hiding-places and arrest hap-hazard six of them-three for each gate. From that moment the doom of these astonished, trembling wretches is sealed. No petitions, payments, or prayers can save them. In the centre of the gateway a deep fosse or ditch is dug, and over it, suspended by two cords, an enormous beam. On the auspicious' day for the sacrifice, the innocent, unresisting victims' hinds and churls,' perhaps, of the lowest degree in Bangkok-are mocked with a dainty and elaborate banquet, and then conducted in state to their fatal post of honour. The king and all the court make profound obeisance before them, his majesty adjuring them earnestly to guard with devotion the gate now about to be intrusted to their keeping from all dangers and calamities; and to come in season to forewarn him if either traitors within or enemies without should conspire against the peace of his people, or the safety of his throne. Even as the last words of exhortation fall from the royal lips, the cords are cut, the ponderous engine crushes the heads of the distinguished wretches, and three_Bangkok ragamuffins are metamorphosed into three guardian angels-Theredah.

"Siamese citizens of wealth and influence often bury treasure in the earth to save it from arbitrary confiscation. In such a case, a slave is generally immolated on the spot to make a guardian genius."

For curious information regarding the sacrifice amongst Slavonians of human blood at the foundation of houses, the

1

reader may consult "The Songs of the Russian People, as Illustrative of Slavonic Mythology and Russian Social Life." By W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. (of the British Museum). London: Ellis & Green. 1872. With a noteworthy extract from this learned and interesting book we will conclude this paper:

The fact that in Slavonic lands, a thousand years ago, widows used to destroy themselves in order to accompany their dead husbands to the world of spirits, seems to rest on incontestible evidence. And at an earlier period there can be no doubt that 'a rite of suttee, like that of modern India,' prevailed among the heathen Slavonians; the descendants, perhaps, as Mr. Tylor remarks of 'widow sacrifice, among the European nations, of an ancient Aryan rite belonging originally to a period even earlier than the Veda.'* According to Iban Dosta, in some places it was customary for the dead man's favourite wife to hang herself in order that her body might be burnt with that of her lord; in others she was expected to allow herself to be burnt alive with his corpse.

In

addition to being accompanied by his widow, the heathen Slavonian, if a man of means and distinction, was solaced by the sacrifice of some of his slaves. The fullest description of what occurred on such an occasion is that given by Iban Fozlan, who declares that he was an eye-witness of what took place. According to him, when one of the Russian merchants, with whom he became acquainted in Bulgaria, died, they asked his girls which of them would die with him. One answered she would, whereupon she was handed over to the care of two daughters of an old woman who had the appearance of a yellow, wrinkled wretch, and who bore the name of 'the Angel of Death.' They kept watch over her till the final moment, in which 'the woman named Death's Angel fixed about her neck a twisted rope, which she gave two men to pull,' and at the same time drove a knife in between her ribs, so that she died. Her dead body was then placed beside that of her lord, in a ship, which had been taken from the river for the purpose, and which was propped up by four trees and surrounded by wooden images of men and giants.' With the human corpses were placed those of a dog, two horses, and pair of fowls, and finally the ship was set on fire. Just before the girl was killed, says Iban Fozlan, she cried out three times, saying, 'Look! there do I see my father and my mother.' And, again, 'Look! I see my relations sitting together there.' And, finally, 'Look! there is my lord. He sits in Paradise.

E. B. Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. I., p. 421, where the subject is discussed at length.

Paradise is so green! so beautiful! By his side are all his men and boys. He calls me; bring me to him!' And after all was over, the Russians' scoffed at their Arabian friend as belonging to a race who buried their dead, and so gave them as a prey to worms and corruption; whereas they themselves burnt their dead at once, and so obtained admittance for them without delay into Paradise."

Iban Fozlan's narrative was published in 1823 by the Russian Academy of Sciences, with a German translation by G. C. M. Frähn. Rasmussen had previously translated it into Danish, and an English rendering of his version appeared in Vol. IV. of Blackwood's Magazine. Iban Dosta's work was published for the first time in 1869, at St. Petersburg, with notes and a Russian translation by the editor, Professor Chowlson. A. M. H. W.

and

"STUDIES IN ELEMENTARY PSYCHONOMY."* MR. CAMPBELL is an incisive writer, who publishes the first part of his notes under the title of "Scaling Heaven." Parts of this paper express the views that he uttered before the B.N.A.S. on the 11th June, 1880, when he showed how "delusive a knowledge was this, of unexplained but none the less natural fact, when taken hold of by the ignorant and the debased, by people who knew neither the meaning of the words they used, the history of the philosophical and religious systems they proposed to reform, nor the laws of elementary morality recognised even by savages." He further urges that "the pantheon of this vaunted new religion is of a decidedly questionable character, its morality sentimentally pure practically the reverse, and its priesthood and prophethood usually vulgar and too often unhealthy." The same style of criticism is liberally bestowed. Turning to his metaphysics, we see that he is a realist" pur et simple. For he says "what we call matter, may be merely a mode of the divine thought and have no final existence; but for us it very certainly exists. Again, what Kant calls the faculties of understanding and reason, may be (probably are) modes of one common spiritual action; but for us they are very certainly distinct." Mr. Campbell appears to have a philosophy of the causes of spiritualistic phenomena. We discern in some of the words of this tract what may be called hyper-Ruskinian English. In fact, so permeated has he become with the spirit

*Scaling Heaven, No. 1. By J. A. Campbell.