As A Rule The Person Who Has A Suhman Keeps The Fact Pretty Quiet,
For The Possession Of Such An
Article would lead half the
catastrophes in his district, from the decease of pigs, fowls, and
babies, to fires, etc.
, To be accredited to him, which would lead to
his neighbours making "witch palaver" over him, and he would have to
undergo poison-ordeal and other unpleasantness to clear his
character. He, however, always keeps a special day in his suhman's
honour, and should he be powerful, as a king or big chief, he will
keep this day openly. King Kwoffi Karri Kari, whom we fought with
in 1874, used to make a big day for his suhman, which was kept in a
box covered with gold plates, and he sacrificed a human victim to it
every Tuesday, with general festivities and dances in its honour.
I should remark that Sasabonsum is married. His wife, or more
properly speaking his female form, is called Shamantin. She is far
less malignant than the male form. Her name comes from Srahman -
ghost or spirit; the termination "tin" is an abbreviation of
sintstin - tall. She is of immense height, and white; perhaps this
idea is derived from the white stem of the silk-cotton trees wherein
she invariably abides. Her method of dealing with the solitary
wayfarer is no doubt inconvenient to him, but it is kinder than her
husband's ways, for she does not kill and eat him, as Sasabonsum
does, but merely detains him some months while she teaches him all
about the forest: what herbs are good to eat, or to cure disease;
where the game come to drink, and what they say to each other, and
so forth. I often wish I knew this lady, for the grim, grand
African forests are like a great library, in which, so far, I can do
little more than look at the pictures, although I am now busily
learning the alphabet of their language, so that I may some day read
what these pictures mean.
Do not go away with the idea, I beg, that goddesses as a general
rule, are better than gods. They are not. There are stories about
them which I could - I mean I could not - tell you. There is one
belonging also to the Tschwi. She lives at Moree, a village five
miles from Cape Coast. She is, as is usual with deities, human in
shape and colossal in size, and as is not usual with deities, she is
covered with hair from head to foot, - short white hair like a goat.
Her abode is on the path to surf-cursed Anamabu near the sea-beach,
and her name is Aynfwa; a worshipper of hers has only got to mention
the name of a person he wishes dead when passing her abode and
Aynfwa does the rest. She is the goddess of all albinoes, who are
said to be more frequent in occurrence round Moree than elsewhere.
Ellis says that in 1886, when he was there, they were 1 per cent.
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