The Ashantees See Sights

The Ashantees See Sights

The natives of these Jaman villages had never seen a white man before, and I noticed at first with some surprise that those of our actions which interested them most were the simple and commonplace ones. To such matters as eating and dressing they gave the closest.attention. Every morning when I emerged from my tent I found a large audience waiting patiently for the performance to begin, and when I took my place at the washstand a crowd closed round, forming a large circle. They followed the whole process with the greatest enjoyment, discussing and explaining to one another the various details and now and again raising shouts of applause as some peculiarly amusing feature of the performance (such as the use of the nailbrush) occurred. When I produced my toothbrush and proceeded to put it to its natural use, there was much anxious discussion, and when I brushed my hair up and made it stand on end they yelled with delight

As for the opening of a bottle of champagne, which occurred on one occasion after an unusually long march) it simply brought down the house, although the spectators somewhat abruptly dispersed and viewed the remainder of the performance around the corners of adjacent huts--"Freeman's Travels and Life in Ashanti."