' These useful
men, who serve as go-betweens and interpreters, are called 'scholars' by
the people, and are charged with making profit out of whites and blacks.
In the afternoon Mr. Graham brought me two neolithic stone-implements. We
then set out for the 'palace,' a large congeries of houses and huts,
guided by a mighty braying of horns and beating of drums, and by Union
Jacks, with the most grotesque adjuncts of men and beasts, planted in the
clean and sandy street-road. King Blay received us in his palaver-hall,
and his costume now savoured not of Europe, but of 'fetish.' He had been
'making customs,' or worshipping after country-fashion, and would not keep
us waiting while he changed dress. The cap was a kind of tall hood,
adorned with circles of cowries and two horns of the little bush-antelope;
the robe was Moorish, long and large-sleeved, and both were charged with
rolls of red, white, and blue stuff, supposed to contain grigris, or
talismans. The Ashanti medal, however, was still there; indeed, he wore it
round his neck even on the march, when his toilette was reduced to a
waist-cloth and a billycock. After discussing palm-wine in preference to
trade-gin, we persuaded King Blay, despite all his opposition, that 'time
is gold,' and that with strange and indelicate haste we _must_ set out
early on the morrow for the Izrah mine.
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