skins are worn on the heads of the executioners, and some few others, whom I remarked as looking more like wild beasts than men. The horns of animals distinguish the head dress of those warriors who have particularly distinguished themselves in either country. The small chains for reins, the large saddle, the elevated pummel, the cantle covered entirely with red leather, the marashut placed under it, the breeching instead of a crupper, the tinkling collar with a little bell, gave the caparison of the Abyssinian horses precisely the same peculiarities as noticed in that of Dagwumba. The thigh bones, skulls and jaws of the Ashantees, are less barbarous and less disgusting human trophies, than those torn by the Abyssinians from the bodies of the slain: I never heard of such being brought to Coomassie. Marriage in Abyssinia is but a civil contract, subsisting only until dissolved by the wish of either party, which is extraordinary, considering their attachment to the Christian religion: so, in Ashantee, the mere return of the marriage present to the husband by the wife's family, on her dissatisfaction, dissolves the contract. In both countries the property of the Mr. Salt continues to relate, wife, received from her own famithat each chief advanced directlyly, is always enjoyed and disposed in front of the Ras, assumed a of independent of the husband. menacing attitude, pronounced a In Ashantee, the husband is never pompous detail of his exploits, and involved in the wife's quarrels, threw at his feet the trophy which offences, or law-suits. Mr. Salt he had until then suspended above observed the great freedom of conhis bracelets. In Ashantee, the duct of the Ozouros of royal desame menacing attitude (in all scent, although he did not consider military oaths the sword of the it to be so lawless as Bruce, by swearer being extended close to whose account it equalled that of the King's nose), the same pom- the sisters and daughters of the pous detail, precede the throwing kings of Ashantee. of a lacerated jaw, a ghastly head, or the bloody weapon of the conquered enemy before the king; and in battle, the reeking heads of the slain are hurried into the rear, to be pressed by the foot of the reclining general, who, in his affected contempt of the enemy, has his draft-board before him. The evenings in Abyssinia are beguiled, in the houses of the chiefs, by chess, the songs of the Gallas, and buffoonery. I have stated the Ashantee year to begin on the first of October, on the authority of Mr. Hutchinson, my own memorandum referring it to the beginning of September and I am inclined to think I was right, because the neighbours of the Ashantees begin their year in the end of August, or at the same time as the Abyssinian, a curious coincidence, The derivation of the names of the Abyssinian months remains unknown; the Ashantees declared that they divided their months by the fall of the particular fruits. of lines and circles, which are crowded with so much care into the entablatures, are evidently groupings of Ethiopic characters similar to those found by Mr. Salt at Axum, and in the ruins in the valley of Yiha. Their studied and unaccountable intricacy had long puzzled me; it was so inconsistent with the freedom and simplicity of their larger and more common architectural decorations. Although these Ethiopic characters are always intermixed in the entablatures, yet, in the cornices, I have mentioned the numerous exceptions to the Negro countenance, as the first extraordinary peculiarity which struck me on reaching Ashantee: the character I have frequently observed them and expression are forcibly re-ranged individually: I regret excalled by Mr. Salt's Abyssinian portraits. The arts and manufactures of the Abyssinians seem, on the whole, to be inferior to those of the Ashantees. Mr. Salt observes, that he was struck with the great resemblance between the Abyssinian architecture and the Gothic: in Ashantee, as I have particularly described, the nail-head, cable, lozenge and other Anglo-Norman ornaments, are frequent. Arcades of round and pointed arches are common, the former frequently interlacing, and thus, probably, suggesting the first idea of the pointed arch in Ethiopia, as in Europe. The larger ornaments of the bases of the Ashantee buildings, are of an Egyptian character; but the intricate and mystical assemblage ceedingly that the idea of their being hieroglyphics did not strike me when in Coomassie, nor did it occur to me until, reading Mr. Salt's travels in Abyssinia for the first time, I recognised them in his engravings of the Ethiopic characters found at Axum and Yiha. Human sacrifices were practised by the ancient Egyptians until the reign of Amosis. Men were sacrificed at Heliopolis, and to Juno or Lucina at a city in the upper Thebais, called by the name of that goddess. It was a disgrace reflected on them by the Greeks, even in the time of Herodotus, whose question, "Is it likely that those who were forbidden to sacrifice animals, would sacrifice men?" is completely answered by the instance of the Ashantees, who sacr fice their fellow-creatures, whilst they punish the killing of a vulture, a hyæna or any sacred animal, with death. mer are sacred amongst the neigh- I have dwelt, in the chapter on White is a colour as sacred in Ashantee as it was in Egypt; the priests are not only distinguished by a white cloth, but frequently chalk their bodies all over. The king, and all but the poorer class of his subjects, wear a white cloth on their fetish days or Sunday, which is not the same in all families, and also on the days of the week on which they were born. The acquitted are always sprink-in Egypt, a certain number of men led with white chalk by the king's and women were destined to take interpreters, as a mark of their in- care of particular animals, and that nocence. The King always swears the office was hereditary: Dioand' makes others swear on a dorus adds, that when they travwhite fowl, and three white lambs | elled, they bore some mark indicatis the sacrifice appointed to being the animal of which they took made before his bed-chamber. A corpse is sometimes chalked all over. The Egyptian priests wore black on melancholy occasions, and the mourning cloth of the Ashantees is painted in close patterns of this colour. care, and that, in consequence, they were respected and reverenced by those they met. According to De Pauw, apes, lions, and animals of other countries were in the number of those to whom families were dedicated. In Egypt, Crocodiles were sacred in each month and each day was saEgypt, tamed, fed with flesh, and cred to some god; in Ashantee, entombed after death. In Ahanta they had good and bad days and the sacred crocodiles are tamed, good and bad months, and all unfed with white fowls by the fetish-dertakings are regulated accordmen or priests, and buried after death. Diodorus mentions wolves as sacred in Egypt; hyenas and wolves have been frequently confounded, as they are still at the Cape of Good Hope, and the for ingly. When an Egyptian of respectability died, all the females of his family daubed their faces and heads with mire, and leaving the body in the house, paraded the streets too; but in a different manner; the Ashantees sometimes smoke them for preservation. Herodotus writes, other nations, when in grief, shave their heads, especially the near relatives; whereas, in Egypt, these persons allow their beard and hair to grow on such occasions.' The present king of Ashantee had not his head shaved or his beard cut for twelve moons after the death of his brother, Sai Quamina, accord (the men following in a distinct company), lamenting and beating their breasts; they abstained from wine and delicacies, and did not lie in their beds until the body was interred. In Ashantee, all the females of the family daub their faces and breasts with the red earth | of which they build their houses, parade the town (distinct from the men), lamenting and beating themselves, assume mean attire, abstain from all nourishment but palm wine, and sleep in the pub-ing to the custom of the country. lic streets until the corpse is buri- If the first or second child dies, ed. Herodotus, speaking of the the hair of the third is not cut Egyptians embalming dead bodies until the third year. adds, that the Ethiopians did so [From the National Journal.] COLONIZATION SOCIETY. It is gratifying to see with what || ciety, in these states, the manureadiness and sincerity the views mitted slave can never enjoy that of this interesting Society are influence and respectability, and adopted and furthered by intelli-those privileges, which give to gent citizens in different sections liberty all its value. Here, he is of the Union. The emancipation deprived, by the despotism of of sixty slaves by Mr. NATHANIEL circumstances, of all inducements C. CRENSHAW, near Richmond, to enterprise, and all motives for has already been noticed in seve- honorable ambition. But in the ral newspapers. We subjoin an Liberian Colony, the most honoraextract of a letter from that gen-ble distinctions are placed within tleman, explanatory of his senti-his reach, and the whole sphere of ments respecting the destination utility is opened to its unfettered of these new freemen. His de- mind. cision appears to us to be noble and judicious. Owing to the character and construction of so RICHMOND, 8th Month, 22d, 1825. "Esteemed Friend: Thy letter of the 16th was received last night. I expect to start for the Springs, in the upper country, to-morrow, which will prevent my making any arrangement, this season, for the servants liberated by me to go to Liberia ; but it is my wish that the young part of them should go another year, and I shall be glad of the assistance of the Colonization Society in giving them a passage. With best wishes for the Society, and sentiments of high respect for thyself, In haste, thy friend, NATHANIEL C. CRENSHAW.” Another instance of distinguished liberality, similar in its character, merits also an honorable mention. The Rev. CAVE JONES, a chaplain in the United States' Navy, has manumitted two men of color, and directed them to be delivered to the Society, in order that they may take passage to the African Colony, in the vessel which is about to be despatched thither, under the direction of the Society. We have been obliged with a perusal of the letter which has been recently received from that gentleman, by the respectable and zealous Secretary of the Society, and we consider it so honorable to the writer, that we cannot refrain from making the following extract: "The object of my inquiry, on the former occasion, was to provide for the emancipation of two men of color be longing to my wife's estate, whom I left in Virginia on my removal from that state, and for the emancipation of whom I have been some time waiting for a suitable opportunity, when it could be done with advantage to them, and security to the country. The colony which your Society has founded, appears to me to present the desired opening; and the reason why I have not before embraced it is, that I wished first to be presented with a sure prospect of its permanency. You have now, I think, arrived at that point; and, therefore, it affords me great satisfaction to embrace the present opportunity. I hope only that we may not be too late. I have by this post written to my agent in the county of Accomack, Virginia, to have the men immediately conveyed to Norfolk, and delivered to Mr. John McPhail, your agent there, accompanied with what appears to me a sufficient instrument of emancipation. He is also instructed to furnish them with sufficient clothes, together with some instruments of husbandry. All, therefore, that the Society will have to undertake, will be to provide for their passage, the usual expenses of which you will please to charge to me, and upon my being furnished with the ac count, they shall be discharged." The views of the Society have not only been aided by the emancipations which have been referred to in the preceding letters, and by others which have attained celebrity through the newspapers of the Union; but have also been promoted by the munificence of the public, in the way of pecu-d niary and other contributions. Amongst the donations most recently made to the Society, one from Mr. E. S. Thomas, of Baltimore, deserves particular mention: "I have," says this gentleman, "a large quantity of seeds, which I wish to |