CHAPTER III.
* * * * *
_Constitution and Laws._
The King, the Aristocracy, now reduced to four, and the Assembly of Captains,[71] are the three estates of the Ashantee government.
The constitution requires or admits an interference of the Aristocracy in all _foreign_ politics, extending even to a veto on the King’s decision; but they watch rather than share the _domestic_ administration, generally influencing it by their opinion, but never appearing to control it from authority; and their opinions on civil questions, are submitted with a deference, directly in contrast to their bold declarations on subjects of war or tribute, which amount to injunction.
The Ashantees advocated this constitution by the argument, that the interference of the Aristocracy in all foreign politics, makes the nation more formidable to its enemies, who feel they cannot provoke with impunity, where there are so many guardians of the military glory; who, by insisting on a war, become responsible in a great degree for the issue, and pledge an energy and exertion, in comparison with which, such as could be excited by a despotic monarch, must be deemed disinterested. They added, that an almost independent administration of the King, was better calculated for the domestic government, because the decrees of a monarch have naturally more force with the people, (over whom his power is unlimited) and, further, that a civil power in the Aristocracy could not be reconciled to the Assembly of Captains, to whom the former estate was already sufficiently invidious for the health of the constitution.
In exercising his judicial authority, the King always retired in private with the Aristocracy to hear their opinions, to encourage their candor without diminishing his majesty in the eye of the people; and in using his legislative prerogative, he was said always to give them a private opportunity of defending the old law, rather than of objecting to the new; though, from the same state policy, the latter was announced to the Aristocracy as well as to the Assembly of Captains, before the people, as the sudden and arbitrary pleasure of the King.
The general Assembly of the Caboceers and Captains, is summoned merely to give publicity to the will of the King and Aristocracy, and to provide for its observance; unless on state emergencies, or unprecedented occasions, such as the Treaty with the British Government. The following anecdote, related to me by many Ashantees, will illustrate the freedom of their constitution.
A son of the King’s quarrelling with a son of Amanquateä’s, (one of the four) told him, that in comparison with himself, he was the son of a slave; this being reported to Amanquateä, he sent a party of his soldiers, who pulled down the house of the King’s son and seized his person. The King hearing of it sent to Amanquateä, and learning the particulars, interceded for his son, and redeemed his head for 20 periguins of gold.
The most original feature of their law, that of succession, has been mentioned in the History, with the argument on which it is founded: it is universally binding; the course is, the brother, the sister’s son, the son, the chief vassal or slave to the stool. In the Fantee country, the principal slave succeeds to the exclusion of the son, who only inherits his mother’s property, frequently considerable, and inherited from her family independently of her husband: the daughters share a small part of the fetish or ornamental gold, which is much alloyed with silver.
The sisters of the King may marry or intrigue with whom they please, provided he be an eminently strong or personable man; that the heirs of the stool may be, at least, personably superior to the generality of their countrymen.
The King is heir to the gold of every subject, from the highest to the lowest; the fetish gold and the cloths are generally presented by him to the successor to the stool, from which the slaves and other property of the deceased are inseparable. The King contributes to the funeral custom to validate his claim, and usually bestows ten periguins of the dust gold on the successor, (if of a rich man,) who is in all cases liable for the debts of the deceased, though the amount is generally made good to him sooner or later, if he has influence with those about the King, or recommends himself to his notice personally. This law is sometimes anticipated, by a father presenting his children with large sums of gold just before his death. Boiteëm, the father of Otee, one of the King’s linguists, is known to have done so, but the son discovers his wealth very deliberately.
The gold buried with members of the royal family, and afterwards deposited with their bones in the fetish house at Bantama, is sacred; and cannot be used, but to redeem the capital from the hands of an enemy, or in extreme national distress; and even then, the King must avoid the sight of it, if he would avoid the fatal vengeance of the fetish or deity.
If a slave seeks refuge from an ally or tributary, he is restored; if from an unconnected power, he is received as a free subject.
The tributary state which distinguishes itself in suppressing the revolt of another, is rewarded by privileges at the expense of the offending power: thus if a subject of the former kills a subject of the latter, the price of a slave only can be recovered, instead of the fine otherwise attached to the death of a freeman; and the damages for other injuries are reduced in proportion.
If the subjects of any tributary do not like the decision of their ruler, according to the laws of their own country, they may appeal to the King, and claim decision by the law of Ashantee. The commission allowed to the collectors of tribute or fine, is two periguins out of ten.
The direct descendants of the noble families who assisted the enterprise of Saï Tootoo, the founder of the kingdom, are not subject to capital punishment, but can only be despoiled. There are now but four remaining, Ananqui, Assafee, (see Diary,) and two others, all beggars.
We were present at the promulgation of the following law: “All persons sent on the King’s business shall no longer seize provisions in any country, whether tributary or otherwise, in his name; but requiring food, shall offer a fair price for the first they meet with, if this is refused, they shall then demand one meal, and one meal only, in the King’s name, and proceed. This extends to all messengers sent by the head captains, whose servants, as well as the King’s, have been long in the habit of extorting goods from traders, and tobacco and provisions in the market place, in the names of their masters, which they shall do no longer without incurring the same penalty which is attached to the former part of this law, 110 penguins.” The form of making this law, was, the linguists with their insignia advanced and announced it to each of the four members of the Aristocracy, then to the whole assembly; afterwards Cudjo Appăni, the chief crier, proclaimed it to the people, who shouted their thanks; his fee from the King was ten ackies, from the people twenty. This attachment of the penalty to the law (the chief merit of Zaleucus) manifests some advancement in polity, in securing the accused against arbitrary judgment.[72]
The caboceers of Soota, Marmpon, Becqua, and Kokofoo, the four large towns built by the Ashantees at the same time with Coomassie, have several palatine privileges; they have an independent treasury, though subject to the demands of the government and a judicial power, with the reserve of an appeal to the King. They celebrate their own yam custom after they have attended that at Coomassie, at which all dependents and tributaries must be present, and which seems to have been instituted like the Panathenæa of Theseus, to unite such various nations by a common festival. These four caboceers, only, are allowed, with the King, to stud their sandals with gold.
The blood of the son of a King, or of any of the royal family cannot be shed; but when guilty of a crime of magnitude, they are drowned in the river Dah, by a particular captain, named Cudjo Samfani.
If a man swears on the King’s head, that another must kill him, which is understood to be invoking the King’s death if he does not, the other man must do so, or forfeit the whole of his property, and generally his life. This very frequently occurs, for the blacks in their ardor for revenge, do not regard sacrificing their own lives to bring a palaver on their murderer, which their families are sure to do.
To be convicted of cowardice is death.
A subject may clear any part of the bush for building a croom, or making a plantation, without paying any thing to the King as lord of the soil; but he must pay a small sum to the possessor of the nearest croom or plantation, through which his path runs.
The government has no power to direct the traders to any particular market, though it interdicts the commerce with any power which may have offended it.
All the King’s linguists take fetish to be true to each other, and to report faithfully.
If any subject picks up gold dropped in the market place, it is death, being collected only by order of the government on emergencies; see Revenue.
Theft of the King’s property, or intrigue with the female attendants of the royal family, or habitual incontinence, is punished by emasculation; but crim. con. with the wife of a man who has been so punished, is death: being considered an aggravated contempt of law.
Interest of money is 33⅓ per cent. for every forty days, which is accompanied after the first period by a dash of liquor. When the patience of the creditor is exhausted, he seizes the debtor, or even any of his family, as slaves, and they can only be redeemed by the payment. This barbarous law was nearly the same in Athens.[73]
In almost all charges of treason, the life of the accuser is at risk as well as that of the accused, and is forfeited on the acquittal of the latter. I understood this, from the best authorities, to be indispensible as a check on the palavers; envy, spleen, or covetousness would otherwise accumulate.
The accuser is never discovered or confronted to the accused, nor the evidence revealed, until the latter has fully replied to the charge, as outlined by the King’s linguists.
Palavers are frequently allowed to sleep even for years, as in the Fantee country, to make the damages sued for, the heavier: for instance, if a man stole a hen twelve months before, the value of the broods and eggs it would have produced, on a fair average, in the interval, would be shrewdly calculated, and sued for.[74] State palavers are also allowed to sleep for years, but that is to impose the confidence on the accused that the principal witnesses are dead, and the impression is artfully assisted by the policy of the council. The witnesses against Appia Nanu, who had reported his haughty message to the King, had not been seen for nearly twelve months before they burst before him on the day of his trial, having been sent into the bush on the most distant frontier.
No man is punished for killing his own slave, but he is for the murder of his wife or child.[75] If he kills the slave of another, he must pay the value. If a great man kills his equal in rank, he is generally allowed to die by his own hands: the death of an inferior is generally compensated by a fine to the family, equal to seven slaves.[76]
If a person brings a frivolous palaver against another, he must give an entertainment to the family and friends of the acquitted.
If an aggry bead is broken in a scuffle, seven slaves are to be paid to the owner.
Trifling thefts are generally punished by the exposure of the party in various parts of the town, whilst the act is published; but more serious thefts cannot be visited on the guilty by any but his family, who are bound to compensate the accuser, and punish their relative or not as they think fit; they may even put him or her to death, if the injury is serious, or the crime repeated or habitual.
If a man cohabits with a woman without the house, or in the bush, they are both the slaves of the first person who discovers them; but redeemable by their families.
It is forbidden, as it was by Lycurgus, to praise the beauty of another man’s wife, being intrigue by implication.
A captain generally gives a periguin to the family on taking a wife, a poor man two ackies: the damages for intrigue in the former case are ten periguins; in the latter, one ackie and a half, and a pot of palm wine.
If a woman involves herself in a palaver, she involves her family, but not her husband.
None but a captain can sell his wife, and he, only, if her family are unable to redeem her by the repayment of the marriage fee.
The property of the wife is distinct, and independent of the husband, though the King is the heir to it.
None but a captain can put his wife to death for infidelity, and even then he is expected to accept a liberal offer of gold from the family, for her redemption. To intrigue with a wife of the King’s is death.
If the family of a woman are able and willing, on her report of her dislike to her husband, or his ill-treatment of her, to tender him the marriage fee, he must accept it, and the woman returns to her family, but may not marry again.
If a husband is not heard of by his wife for three years, she may marry again, and if the first husband returns, the claim of the second is the better; but all the children of the after marriage are considered the property of the first husband, and may be pawned by him.
Those accused of witchcraft, or having a devil, are tortured to death.
The good treatment of slaves is in some degree provided for, by the liberty they have of dashing or transferring themselves to any freeman; whom they enjoin to make them his property by invoking his death if he does not; an imperative appeal.
[Footnote 71: It has been shewn in the history, that the Aristocracy was originally formed of the peers and associates of Saï Tootoo the founder of the monarchy, who owed his elevation not to his superior rank, but to his superior endowments and address. The Aristocracy has been gradually retrenched since Saï Cudjo pointed out the way.]
[Footnote 72: By the laws of Ahanta, which are peculiar, if any subject or sojourner is in urgent want of provisions, he may seize the first he meets with, paying the owner the prices which have been fixed by the caboceers: this is similar to the law of Lycurgus. At the Contoom or annual Harvest Custom, the Ahantas revise their laws, as Solon enjoined the Athenians to do, annulling some and adding others.]
[Footnote 73: In Ahanta, all old debts must be paid within six weeks from the commencement of the Contoom or Harvest Custom. The creditor can panyar or seize not only the family, but the townsmen of the debtor.]
[Footnote 74: The Ahanta laws do not allow of these protracted palavers, and only award the intrinsic value of the articles stolen or destroyed. If a man robs a plantation of a yam, he must pay the owner a tokoo of gold, and take two more. In Fantee the pettiest theft frequently entails slavery.]
[Footnote 75: In the kingdom of Amanaheä or Apollonia, the tenth child is always buried alive.]
[Footnote 76: A person accidentally killing another in Ahanta, pays 5 oz. of gold to the family, and defrays the burial customs. In the case of murder, it is 20 oz. of gold and a slave; or, he and his family become the slaves of the family of the deceased. If a man dashes himself to the fetish on the head of another, the other must redeem him. If a man kills himself on the head of another, the other must kill himself also, or pay 20 oz. to the family: in Fantee the sum is indefinitely great: this is frequently resorted to, when there is no other prospect of revenge.
Adumissa, an extraordinarily beautiful red skinned woman of Cape Coast, possessed numerous admirers, but rejected them all. One of them, in despair, shot himself on her head close to her house. The family demanding satisfaction; to save her relations from a ruinous palaver, she resolved to shoot herself in expiation. She accordingly assembled her friends and relatives from various parts of the country, and sitting, richly dressed, killed herself in their presence with golden bullets. After the body had been exposed in state, it was buried with a profusion of cloths and gold. The beautiful Adumissa is still eulogised, and her favourite patterned cloth bears her name amongst the natives.]