Note 77 — Chapter IV

At Nanampong (Nanan means a grand-father) near Mankasim, in the Braffoo country, there is a deep dell, inhabited by a number of aged fetish men, whom the Fantees believe to be immortal, and to have lived there beyond all memory, in close converse with the fetish, and ignorant of the world but by intuition. The spirits of the aged and wise are believed to dwell amongst them, and their prophecies and advice are revered as emanations from the fetish. Adookoo, the chief of the Braffoos, used sometimes to consult them in person, but generally through his head fetishman, and the Fantees now attribute the successes of the Ashantees, and their own defeats and misfortunes, to the disregard of what the oracle enjoined; for, whilst it was obeyed, they say the country always prospered; and, indeed, from the instances which have been reported to me, the responses appear to have directed a just and prudent policy, highly conducive to the welfare of Fantee. This dell is so impervious, and yet so capacious, that many hundred Fantees were secreted there, during the Ashantee invasions, which these priests had predicted. The house or temple of the principal fetish of the Ahanta country, called Checquoo, is at Apremmadoo, about four miles up the Takaradee river: upwards of fifty superior priests are resident there.