MOST EXTRAORDINARY KING IN THE WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10599, 20 February 1896, Page 7

MOST EXTRAORDINARY KING IN THE WORLD.

A Monarch AYho WflAita a Plug Hat foh a. : obown- and ■ has - a royal Umbbblla as a Sceptke of State—

the ■ King-'of Ashantbe Funnier than a Comic Opbba King. . '„'■

! The King: of Asbantee, the most extraI ordinary ruling potentate of the world, stands (.suddenly revealed. Of all tho astonishing j kings of Africa or South Sea Island cannibal / chiefs ho is the most remarkable. ■

King Prempeb, King of Asbantee, has defied the English Government." He has announced his readiness for war, and ia now awaiting the arrival of British troops. The Klicg of Asbantea is the absolute monarch of about three million subjects. Tbey live in the heart of tha African forest, a few hundred miles back from the "Gold Coast.". Tho King wears a girdls of dried grass atound hi« hips and a "plug" hat. He owns no crown, bnt in somo way has become possessed of a silk bat, wbich now does duty as an emblem of sovereignty, . Another remarkable fact about this barbarbus king is that ho has no throne. He has, however, a solid gold stool, which does sorvice as a throne. It takes four able-bodied slaves to tug this stool around. Bat the great official emblom of royal authority is 'AN UMBKELLA. : This curiosity has a big bamboo handle and spokes of embossed gold. On tbe end of each spoko is a human scull. Nobody, not even the King himself, knows the significance of this strange sceptre of majesty, ; but it has descended to him from a long line ,of ancestry. j King Prampeb, among other things, bas ! exactly 3333 wives allowed -bim.by law. ; AVby tbis liberal figure was decided upon his | Maj'ssty does not know. Like the umbrella, they came'to him by. inheritance. Ths King wears earring.. They are of : .solid gold. Ko 'also has other • personal adornments of solid gold. His royal ancea- ; tors all-wore gold earrings, too. i Hia Majesty lives in a big stone and native j brick palace—the only structure of the kind !in the kingdom.' His Royal Highness sleeps j en'the floor. . I The King is several times a millionaire, and it ia believed that he has several barrels !of gold-dust and nuggets, Asbantee is rich jin gold. ' . j King Prempeh is a bloodthirsty monarch, ' and he is in the habit of making human sacrifices on a wholesale scale. Whenever it pler.r.efi him to do so ha orders a few hundred subjects to be beheaded. Besides tbis, daring ' certain religious ceremonies it is customary 1 r.n kill subject*. It is this practice which '■ England wants the King to stop. And it is jto put an end to'thasa human sacrifices that ! tbe British troops will wade into the forest i and make war on tiie King. 1 The King ol: Asbantee could give points in | despotism to tho Sultan of Turkey and the • Czar of Russia. If the Czar were to do the I things which the King of Asbantee thinks I nothing of doing thara would bo a vacancy jiu tbe Winter Palace. jlf any man looks at one of his 3333 wives ! that man's name is Daonis. Some of these ! numerous wives of the King of Asiiaatee are j not worth looking at, it is true, but fche owner jof any profane e-jes that even by accident j happened to rest.upon them would be con- ! ducted to a shady grove in the neighbouri hood of the town and fail to return. When one king- dies 2000 people are killed as a guard of honour to accompany him to tbe other world. As many aa 10,000 are reported to hs.ve been killed on one occasion in a single day. Upon every national festival it is also the custom for the King of Ashantee-to offer human sacrifices. People are believed to be killed almost evevy day at Coomassie, the capital,' and- this kind of official murder is a regular fcbiug. ■•■■:. THK GEOVB OF SKULLS. The one thing which has always excited the horror and amazement of travellers who have penetrated into this African town, lying 110 miles back from ' tho Gold Coast, is the Grove of Skulls, where ia countless numbers the bones of victims of the King lie upon the ground with tbe festering remains of those who have recently been despatched. Here, where vultures gorged with human flesh perch upon the trees waiting for the new victims which many years have taught them to look for with certainty, is a spectacle presented tbo like o£ which is to be seen nowhere else upon earth. This spot, where executions have taken place from -time immemorial, is in a small grove back of the large market place at Coomassie. The victims are brought to this place with their hands securely tied, and they are made dumb by two knives thrust crosswise, through their cheeks. Tbe poor wretches aro for a time tortured by beirg pinched, pricked with swords, and fired upon at short range with blank cartridges. The powder from these cartridges enters the flesb, causing excruciating agony. ■ .Then the executioners, who are fantasti- j cslly dressed, seize their huge swords and, flourishing them in the air, lop off the heads of the victims one,after another. Tben tbey retire from the scene drenched with blood from bead to foot, and leaving the bodies lying where, they fall." As soon : as the executioners retire the vultures swoop down from the trees above, and tiie ground is soon black with, them. At night the panthers come, and slink away s&tiated before ths dawn. WHAT -STANLEY SAW. The pathway leading to this grova has been worn broad and deep through years of use, and it, is rJso slippery with blood. Henry M. Stanley, who, as a war correspondent, accompanied. Sir Garnet Wolssley's expedition to Coomassie in 1,87-1, visited this grova. "As we drew near," says Stanley, " the foul smells became so suffocating that we were glad to produce our handkerchiefs to prevent the intolerable and almost, palpable odour from mounting into the brain and overpowering ns. After some 30 paces we arrived before the dreadful scene, but it was almost impossible to stop longer than to take a genergl view of the great G-olgotha. AYe saw somo 30 or 4.0 decapitated bodies in the last stages of corruption, and countless skulls, wbich lay piled in heaps and scattered over a wide extent. The stoutest heart and most stoical mind might have been appalled." Several officars of tho expedition, although it remained but two days at Coomassie, made the trip to tbis awful spot, and subsequently deForibed it ss beyond anything else in horror to be seen in tbe world. "Under a huge tree," said one bf these gentlemen in a letter, " tbe skulls were piled up so bigli tbat they reached almost to the lowest limbs. You could nowhere seethe ground, as it wss all covered with bones and skulls. Hero and there could be seen a decomposing body. "The vultures slowly rose from the ground upon our approach, but several of them were so gorged with human flesh that tbey could not rise, jnnd lay blinking at us on the ground, clumuily flapping thr'Sr wings.. The smell'of the place was somo'-bin;? awful. OVBKCAMK A JACK TAB. *' A sailor who was in our party was overpowered, by the stench snd had to be carried from ths grove. AVo had been warned beforehand, and had provided ourselves with flasks of brandy. " I could not say how many human skeletons were on the ground, but I should say there were several thousands in sight. I was told that what we saw was not one-half of tbo extent of the Grove of Skulls. From what natives say the murders have been going on here almost daily. ■ •' At these executions tho King of Asbantee was generally present, but not always. One man who was recently executed had painted the interior of the king's harem. Although he had committed no crime he was doomed to execution because bis profane eyes bad fallen upon places and things reserved only for the eyes of ths King." It was learned during this expedition, which was the first of any importance to penetrate tha capital of Asbantea, tbat tho people, of. tho country looked npon human sacrifices almost as a matter of course, and that many regarded such a death as honourable. This was especially so upon the death of a king. A3HANTEE HISTORY. Asbantee lies back of tho British Gold Coast, near the Gulf of Guinea, in Western Africa, and is a land of thick and jungly forest, so dense that the sun seldom pierces its' foliage, and sd sickly that the hardiest European soon falls a victim to its deadly fevers. From Coomassie, which is in the centre of a noisome swamp, this forest I stretches 140 miles south towards the sea; how many hundreds of miles to the eastward is not known, but its boundaries to tbe north and west are nearly 200 miles distant. The country .is rich in gold dust and other resources, and the people are flne specimen's ot physical development, who have been quick 1 to take ?.dTanto-cDhews]^..eoEt&c_.mth

civilisation—tbat is,as far as-securing modern weapons of warfare. England has bad several Asbantee wars,, all of them unsuccessful until' the one in 1873-4, when the British forces, led by Sir Garnet AVolseley (now commander-in-chief of the army), hewed their way through the dense forest from the coast to the capital, meeting with little opposition from the natives, but losing heavily from the everpresent and deadly miasma. Coomassie was carried by assault after a five-days' fight. '"'.; The British tarried there but 48 hoursonly long onough to sack and burn the town-— •' and then turned tbeir faces toward the coast. The rainy season had just begun, and the tale of the return march to the nea is one of the saddest of any of England's many wars of conquest, for the number of soldiers "* that died during that toilsome journey is appalling. Twenty years ago the Ashantees were armed with flintlocks of an ancient pattern, but now, owing to the enterprise of European! traders, they have au ample number of Snider rifles and olenty of ammunition.—From the New York "World.