THRONE OF THE ASHANTIS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 March 1922, Page 9

THRONE OF THE ASHANTIS.

FINDING OF GOLDEN STOOD A CROP OF MURDERS. Cablegrams received some weeks ago reported the discovery of the famous “Golden Stool” of the Ashantia. The following despatch from the. Dunkwa correspondent of the London Times gives further details of the discovery and explains the significance of this national emblem: Extraordinary excitement has been aroused in Ashanti and the Gold Coast Colony by the report of the finding of the famous and mysterious “Golden Stool” of the Ashantis, wliich has been the subject of much speculation for syears past, and about which has been woven such a network of legend, of tradition, prophecy, and bloodshed. It is impossible now to ascertain what has actually occurred at the present juncture, and it is quite probable that we shall never learn the true facts. All kinds of rumor are rife, and all we know for certain is that the stool has been discovered, that several murders have taken place in consequence, and that we hold some prisoners, fhe decision as to whose treatment is a considerable source of embarrassment to ourselves.

One report has it that the stool was originally concealed by four men, of whom three were immediately decapitated, and the knowledge of its whereabouts left in the sole possession of the fourth, who died two years ago without revealing the secret; that it was accidentally discovered during the construction of a pioneer road by community labor; that two chiefs of the locality—i.e., the neighborhood of Nkoranza, some miles from Coomassie—took possession of it, stripped off the gold, and destroyed or concealed the other relics. They then, in terrible fear of consequences, fled to Coomassie’ for protection, and surrendered to the authorities.

A more likely report is that one of the golden bells was seen and recognised in the possession of a native in the far north, who has since died a peculiarly painful death by poison, and that three custodians of the stool, whose business it was to guard it, either fearing the consequences of their negligence or being the actual culprits, fled to Coomassie and surrendered themselves to us. In any case, the prisoners are now guarded by two half-companies of the West African Frontier Force, all troops are standing at arms, and pickets have been placed on the hospital and all public buildings. The Ashantis demand the release of the prisoners in order that they may be put to death by the particular torture prescribed for such an offence; while the prisoners have asked us to put them to death, or alternately,, to be provided with the means of committing suicide. They resolutely withhold any information as to what they have done with the relics fearing presumably either that we are not strong or willing enough to protect them, and hoping to buy an easy death by a revelation of their whereabouts; or that if they do reveal their hiding place to us nothing will save them from an ultimate unpleasant death in punishment for their treachery.

The position was, at first, somewhat critical. It so happened that King Prempeth’s sister was quite recently released from prison, where she had been undergoing a sentence of fifteen years’ penal servitude, and as there was also a rumor that King Prempeth was about to be repatriated from the Seychelles, where he has been interned, it was thought that the sister might be organising a rising in his favor.

The Ashantis in general, not knowing what had actually occurred, thought that we were responsible for the desecration, and matters looked serious. However, as between the Europeans and the natives the situation has now quietened down,/and the chief fear is of trouble arising from retributory ven-1 geance being taken by the other tribes against the tribes to whom the prison-*’ ers belong. The true Ashanti stools, it may here be of interest to note, are typical in shape, although widely variant in size. They are carved with the crudest of tools out of solid blocks of wood, the commoner from soft woods, such as “cotton wood,” “Wawa,” or “Emil,” the better class from mahogany, “Odum” (African Oak), and similar hardwoods, and the prices range from a shilling or two for a small one of the former kind to as much as £2O for a large one of the latter. They are a rectangular oblong in plan, with a flat solid base carrying a column at each corner and a larger central upright, which may be circular or square, but is, in the best kinds, hollowed out and pierced with rectangular holes. The columns qre also embellished by scalloping, etc., olit out of the solid. The top or seat is curved downwards from the ends to the centre, the design as a whole being simply severe and pleasing, and the proportions always good.

It is unlikely that the “Golden Stool,” the “throne”of the Ashanti kings, was of solid gold, but it was probably covered entirely with plates of that valuable metal, and. in addition, was ornamented with bells and other articles of solid goldi

At the termination of our last war with the Ashantis this famous stool xml other regalia, also the skull of a former king, one Kerikari, was most secretly concealed, and all search and investigation on our part proved fruitless.