The Great White Queen: A Tale of Treasure and Treason

by William Le Queux

  CHAPTER XI.

  THE HUMAN SACRIFICE.

  KUMASSI, the capital of the Ashanti kingdom, was, we found, full ofcurious contrasts. We approached it through dense high elephant grass,along a little beaten foot-path strewn with fetish dolls. It was eveningwhen we entered it, and drums could be heard rumbling and booming far andnear. Presently we passed a cluster of the usual mud huts, then another;several other clusters were in sight with patches of high jungle grassbetween. Then in a bare open space some two hundred yards across, werehuts, and more thatched roofs in the hollow beyond. This was Kumassi.

  During that day three of our fellow-sufferers, knowing the horrible fatein store for them, managed to snatch knives from the belts of our captorsand commit suicide before our eyes, preferring death by their own handsto decapitation by the executioners of Prempeh, that bloodthirsty monarchwho has now happily been deposed by the British Government, but who atthat time was sacrificing thousands of human lives annually, defiant andheedless of the remonstrances of civilized nations.

  In size Kumassi came up to the standard I had formed of it. The streetswere numerous, some half-dozen were broad and uniform, the main avenuebeing some seventy yards wide, and here and there along its length agreat patriarchal tree spread its branches. The houses were wattledstructures with alcoves and stuccoed facades, embellished with Moorishdesigns and coloured with red ochre. Red seemed the prevailing colour.Indeed it is stated on good authority that on one occasion Prempehdesired to stain the walls of his palace a darker red, and used the bloodof a thousand victims for that purpose. Behind each of the pretentiousbuildings which fronted the streets were grouped the huts of thedomestics, inclosing small courtyards.

  Passing down this main avenue, where many people watched our dismalprocession, we came to the grove whence issued the terrible smell whichcaused travellers to describe Kumassi as a vast charnel-house; we,however, did not halt there, but passed onward to the palace of Prempeh,situated about three hundred yards away and occupying a level area in thevalley dividing the two eminences on which the town is situated. Thefirst view of what was designated as the palace was a number of houseswith steep thatched roofs clustered together and fenced around with splitbamboo stakes, while at one corner rose a square two-storeyed stonebuilding. The lower part of the lofty walls of stucco was stained deepred, probably by blood, and the upper part whitewashed.

  Presumably our captors had received a commission from Prempeh to supplyhim with slaves for the sacrifice, for we were marched into a smallcourtyard of the palace itself and there allowed to rest until next day,being given a plentiful supply of well-cooked _cankie_, or maize puddingwrapped in plantain leaves. Our position was, we knew, extremelycritical. Attired in the merest remnant of a waist cloth, with a thicknoose of grass-rope securely knotted around our necks, we lay in the opencourt with the stars shining brilliantly above us, unable to sleep fromthe intensity of our feelings. In the next court there were more than ahundred unfortunates like ourselves huddled together, ready to besacrificed on the morrow.

  Soon after sunrise, while moodily awaiting our fate, we were made tostand up for inspection by one of the King's Ocras. These men were ofthree classes; the first being relatives of the King and entrusted withState secrets, were never sacrificed, the second were certain soldiersappointed by the king, and the third slaves. All, on account of theirdistinguished services, were exempt from taxes, palavers and militaryservices, and were kept in splendid style by the Royal exchequer, thoseof the inferior classes being expected to sacrifice themselves upon thetomb of the king when he died.

  The tall, rather handsome, man who inspected us was an Ocra of the firstclass, for he wore a massive gold circle like a quoit suspended aroundhis neck by golden chains, and, walking beneath an enormous,gaudily-coloured silken umbrella bearing the crude device of a crouchingleopard, was attended by a numerous retinue, who paid him the greatestrespect.

  The Arabs who had brought us there made him profound obeisance, whilesome members of the retinue snapped fingers with several of the Arabs,and the usual teetotal ceremony of drinking water to "cool the heads"was gone through. The inspection was a keen one, each of us being passedin review before the Ocra, who made brief comments to the Arabs at hisside. As Omar passed the dark-faced official scrutinised him carefullyand seemed interested to learn what the leader of the slave caravan toldhim in a tongue unknown to me regarding us both, for his gaze wanderedfrom my companion to myself, and I was at once called out to pass beforehis keen glance. We were both kept there several minutes while the Arabpresumably explained how we had been entrapped at the court of Samory. Atlast, however, we were allowed to retire, and very soon afterwards thegreat Ocra moved forward into the next court, followed by a couple ofyouths bearing long knives and a thin, lean-looking wretch with a stoolcuriously carved from a solid block of cotton wood, richly embellishedwith gold ornaments.

  When he had gone I cast myself upon the ground in the shadow beside Omar,saying:

  "After all, it would have been better if we had died in the woods than toendure this torture of waiting for execution."

  "Yes," he answered, gloomily. "That Ocra who has just inspected us wasBetea, a bitter enemy of my mother. He is certain to revenge himself uponus."

  But even as he spoke we heard the adulatory shouts of the royal criersomewhere in our vicinity. They were more than sufficient to transformany man, white or black, into a vain despot, and as translated by Omarwere in the strain of:

  "O, King, thou art the king above all kings! Thou art great! Thou artmighty! Thou art strong! Thou hast done enough! The princes of the earthbow down to thee, and humble themselves in the dust before thy stool.Who is like unto the King of all the Ashantis?"

  It was the preliminary of the great sacrifice!

  King Prempeh, though arrogant, vain and cruel beyond measure, had, weafterwards saw, the eye of a king, which means that it was the eye of onepossessing unlimited power over life and death. It was the custom for theking to be placed on the stool by the united voice of the chiefs; butimmediately he was seated in him became vested the supreme power.

  Soon the firing of guns and the loud beating of the great _kinkassis_, ordrums ornamented with human skulls, sounded outside the walls wherein wewere confined, while the air was rent by the wild yells of the excitedpopulace. For nearly an hour this continued, and we thus remained interrible suspense until at last the gate opened, and with the grass ropesstill around our neck we were marched out of the palace under an escortof the king's slaves.

  Turning to the left along the broad avenue we saw upon a long pole ahuman head grinning at us, two vultures perched upon it eagerly strippingit. It was, Omar told me, the head of a thief. The street was crowdedwith people, who shouted to their gods as we passed in procession, andpresently we came to a great fetish-gallows, from the cross beams ofwhich hung the decomposing body of a ram. Some of the men forming ourescort were a strangely-dressed set, their uniform consisting of stripedtunics reaching to the knee, confined round the waist by belts profuselydecorated with strips of leopard skin and tiny brass bells which tinkledmusically as they moved. In their belts they carried several knives,while the musket and the little round cap of pangolin skin completedtheir equipment.

  At last we reached the grove at Bantama on the out-skirts of the town,one of the three execution places. Several thousand people had assembledaround a great tree where a number of gorgeous umbrellas of every hue andmaterial had been erected. Many were ornamented with curious devices, andthe tops of some bore little images of men and animals in gold andsilver. Under the centre umbrella, upon a brass-nailed chair close to thetree, sat King Prempeh in regal splendour, surrounded by a crowd ofchiefs, whose golden accoutrements glittered in the sun. Threescarlet-clad dwarfs were dancing before him amid the dense crowd ofsword-bearers, fly-whiskers, court criers and minor officials. As he satthere, his thin flabby yellow face glistening with oil, he looked a trulyregal figure, wearing upon his head a high black and gold crown, and onhis n
eck and arms great golden beads and nuggets. His habit was to suck alarge nut that looked like a big cigar, and as he sat there with it inhis mouth it gave his face a strangely idiotic expression.

  The whole Ashanti court had assembled at the theatre of human sacrifice.

  As we approached the drumming grew louder, the roar of voices filled theair, and the great coloured umbrellas were seen whirling and bobbingabove the heads of the surging crowd of natives. The great barrel-likedrums, with their grim ornamentations, boomed forth, and bands ofelephant-tusk horns added to the deafening din.

  In the distance could be seen the great fetish-house, with its enormoushigh thatched roof wherein was supposed to be hidden Prempeh's greattreasures of gold-dust and jewels. The ground whereon the glitteringcourt had assembled was covered with the skulls and bones of thousands offormer victims, and as we advanced slowly through the turbulent crowd wesaw a sight that froze our blood. At the foot of the fetish tree wasplaced a great brass execution-bowl, about five feet in diameter. It wasornamented with four small lions and a number of knobs all around itsrim, except at one part where there was a space for the victim's neck torest upon the edge. The blood of those sacrificed to the gods was allowedto putrefy in this great bowl--which has recently passed into the handsof the English, and is now in London--and leaves of certain herbs beingadded it was considered valuable as a fetish medicine.

  As we entered the cleared space between the chiefs and caboocerssurrounding the King and the thousands of warriors and spectators, salvoafter salvo of musketry was fired, until the smoke obscured all objectsin our immediate vicinity. Around the sacrificial bowl were grouped adozen or more royal executioners with their faces whitewashed andhideously decorated. Some upon their heads wore caps of monkey skin withthe face in front, while others had high head-dresses of eagles'feathers, their tunics of long grasses being covered with magical charmstied in little bunches. All were copiously smeared with blood, while eachwore a necklace of human teeth, and carried a heavy broad-bladed swordrusted by the blood of former victims. Behind them were twenty or thirtyAshantis, each with a knife stuck through both cheeks, to prevent theunhappy victims from asking the King to spare their lives, which,according to national law, must be granted, while a broad-bladed daggerwas in many cases run under the shoulder-blades. They were prisoners whohad tried to stir revolt, and were, we understood, to be sacrificedfirst. Our turn would come later.

  The scene was horrible; we were appalled. At a signal from the King thefirst unfortunate wretch was instantly seized by two executioners andheld over the bowl, while a third lifted his keen sword, and with a dull,sickening thud brought it down upon the poor fellow's neck, hacking intohis spine until the head was severed. Then there arose a loud shout oftriumph. The offering to the fetish was the signal for the mostenthusiastic rejoicing, and the shouts of adulation were deafening. Thepeople, ground down by a crafty priesthood, and steeped in the mostdegrading superstitions, looked upon the wholesale butchery that followedwithout a shudder. King, courtiers and slaves seemed seized with aninsatiable desire for blood, and as one head fell after another, thecries of the victims drowned by the vociferous shouts of the onlookers,Omar and I stood shackled and trembling.

  One after another the victims were thrown across the bowl and theirlife-blood gushed into it as the cruel swords descended, while the Kinggloated over the sight with an expression of pleasure upon his oilysinister face, until the heap of headless trunks grew large, and thenumber sacrificed must have been over a hundred.

  Suddenly the chief executioner took one of his knives which had a humanskull upon the hilt, and holding it up, commanded silence.

  Then spoke the Ocra Betea, who, rising from his stool, waved his handacross the veritable Golgotha, crying:

  "Behold! Tremble! The King makes the great yam custom. The death-drumbeats, and to the fetish we offer sacrifice. Who is so great as the Kingof all the Ashantis, and who is so powerful as the fetish? Yonder are thegraves of the great kings, and the marks on yonder walls show the numberof men who were sacrificed when their graves were watered. Listen! Themighty King Prempeh is about to sacrifice. To-day he sends five hundredmen to the dark world as a thank offering for the harvest, and as anoffering to the fetish to enable us to eat up our enemies, the whites.When our mighty King says war, we will arm against them, and their headsshall fill many baskets. Of a truth our lord Prempeh is the greatestmonarch who has ever sat upon the stool. The earth quakes when he speaks,and his enemies are paralysed by fear. Betea has spoken."

  Then the crowd set up a series of wild shrieks and yells, theygesticulated, fired guns indiscriminately, and danced wildly, while someof the enthusiasts pressing forward, dipped their hands into the bloodalready in the bowl, and besmeared themselves with it; and others,turning upon myself and my companion as we stood silent and trembling,heaped every insult upon us.

  In a few moments, however, the crowd was driven back, and at a signalfrom the King the executions recommenced, until the smell of blood grewsickening, and the awful scene caused me to shake like an aspen.

  I knew that nothing could save me from the hands of these demoniacalwhitewashed executioners, and in a few moments I, a slave purchased likean ox for the slaughter, would be borne down over the bowl anddecapitated.

  I looked at Omar. His face was pale, but his lips were tightly set,although there was an expression of utter hopelessness upon hiscountenance.

  The horror of that moment held me breathless.