Oh! ye traitours and maintainers of madness, Unto your foly I ascribe all my paine; Ye haue me depriued of ioy and gladnesse, So dealing with my lord and soueraine.

Chaucer. Lamentation of Marie Magdalene, fol. 319. ch. iv.

True wisdom teaches to distinguish God's actions, and to ascribe them to the right causes.

Hall's Contemplations. Ascribe thou nation, every favour'd tribe, Excelling greatness to the Lord ascribe; The Lord, the rock on whom we safely trust, Whose work is perfect, and whose ways are just. Parnell. The Gift of Poetry. The cause of his banishment is unknown; because he was unwilling to provoke the emperor, by ascribing it to any other reason than what was pretended.

Dryden. encroachments which render mankind uneasy to one another. Rogers.

To this we may justly ascribe those jealousies and

These perfections must be somewhere; and therefore may much better be ascribed to God, in whom we suppose all other perfections to meet, than to any thing else. Tillotson. The greater part have been forward to reject it upon a mistaken persuasion; that those phenomena are the effects of nature's abhorrency of a vacuum, which seem to be more fitly ascribable to the weight and spring of the air. Boyle. Sometimes we ascribe to ourselves the merit of good qualities, which if justly considered should cover us with shame. Craig. Holiness is ascribed to the pope; majesty to kings: serenity or mildness to princes; excellence or perfec

tion to ambassadors; grace to archbishops; honor to Addison. peers. The innocent gambols of a few otters, have been known to occasion those yells which the vulgar of this, country mistake for laughing or crying, and ascribe to a certain goblin, who is supposed to dwell in the waters, and to take delight in drowning the bewildered

traveller.

Beattie.

ASCRIPTI, or ADSCRIPTI, in antiquity, those who entered their names in the colonies, and became coloni.

ASCRIPTITII, or ADSCRIPTITII, in ancient barbarous customs, a kind of villains, who, coming from abroad, settled in the lands of some new lord, and became so annexed to the lands that they might be transferred and sold with them. Ascriptiti is sometimes also used in speaking of aliens or foreigners newly admitted to the freedom of a city or country.

ASCRIPTITII was used in the military laws for the recruits to supply the legions, called also ACCENSI, which see.

ASCRIVIUM, in ancient geography, a town of Dalmatia, on the Sinus Rhizicus, now called Cattaro, in Venetian Dalmatia.

ASCULUM APULUM, and PICENUM. See ASCOLI.

ASCUS, in natural history, the pouch or bag of the opossum, for receiving its young. It is a skinny bag, separate from the rest of the body, but adhering by a membrane to the bottom of the belly.

ASCYRUM, PETER'S WORT, in botany, a genus of the polyandria order, and the polyadelphia class of plants, ranking in the natural method under the twentieth order, rotacea; CAL. four leaves: cor. four petals; the filaments are nuVOL. III.

merous, and divided into four bundles. There are three species: 1. A. crux andreæ; 2. A hypericoides; 3. A. villosum; all natives o the West-Indies, or America.

ASDRUBAL, the name of several Carthaginian generals. See CARTHAGE.

ASEKAI, ASEKI, the name which the Turkish emperors give to their favorite sultanas, generally those who have brought forth sons. These are greatly distinguished above others in their apartments, attendants, pensions, and honors. They have sometimes shared the government. The sultana who first presents the emperor with a male child is reckoned the chief favorite, and is called buyuk aseki.

ASELE-LAPPMARK, a division of Swedish

Lapland, contains the large parish of Asele, sixty English miles in length. In the town of this name there is a church, erected in 1648. Here is also a school, established in 1730, where six children of Laplanders are educated at the expense of the government. This place is moreover the seat of a court of justice, and has a yearly fair. The inhabitants trade in rein-deer skins, flesh, butter, cheese, fowls, fish, and furs. Eighty-five miles west of Umea. Long. 17° 4 E., lat. 64° 12′ N.

ASELLA, in entomology, a species of phalæna, of the bombyx family, found in Germany, wings brownish without spots.

ASELLI

ASELLI, in astronomy, two fixed stars of the fourth magnitude, in the constellation Cancer. or ASELLIUS (Caspar), an Italian anatomist of the seventeenth century, who distinguished himself by discovering the lacteal vessels. He was born at Cremona, and studied medicine, and became professor of anatomy in the university of Pavia. Aselli first observed the lacteals in dissecting a living dog. His investigations were published after his death at Milan in 1627.

ASELLINA, in zoology, a species of Lernæa, having the body lunated, and the thorax heartshaped. Found fixed on the gills of some fishes.

ASELLUS, in entomology, a species of the oniscus genus; of an oval shape, with an obtuse tail, furnished with two styles. It delights in moist places, under stones, in damp and rotten wood, &c. The young are contained in a fourvalved receptacle, under the abdomen of the female. This is commonly known by the name of the wood louse.

ASELLUS, in conchology, a species of chiton, most frequently found adhering to the mytilus modielus. The shell consists of eight valves, very black, with a yellow spot on each valve, convex above; also a species of cypræa, common about the Madeira islands. It is white, with three brown bands bordered with yellow or red.

ASENATH, the daughter of Potipherah, priest or prince of On, and wife of Joseph, prime minister to Pharaoh king of Egypt. See Genesis xli. 45.

ASEPTA; in medicine, from a negative, and onw, to putrefy; signifies any thing unputrefied, or unconcocted.

ASGILL (John), a humorous writer, bred to the law, which he practised in Ireland with great success. He was there elected a member of the D

mteror, were spoken of to the gentlemen of the mission, but were little known, it appeared, at the capital.

The king's love of justice is esteemed by his courtiers as his chief virtue. They have no ideas of extending their influence by civil policy. The cefoceers, or military captains, accordingly form the lowest grade of the constitution, over whom are placed the heads of but four families, which form a sort of aristocracy, and, with the king, complete the three estates of this kingdom. In exercising his judicial authority, or in laying the basis of a new law or measure, the king always retires in private to consult these four chief dignitaries; but every law is announced publicly to them as well as to the assembly of captains, as the arbitrary pleasure of the king. On state emergencies only, are the latter assembled distinctly, or to give publicity to some new law. The Ashantees are fully capable of vindicating this constitution by argument, according to the testimony of our officers who visited the court of Coomassie; indeed, no system of government would seem better suited to their habits and propensities. The captains are made responsible, in a great degree, for the issue of their own advice with respect to war or peace; we only wish we could add, that in their mode of conducting hostilities, they were as humane as they are energetic and skilful.

In this respect, they are still barbarous in the highest degree. They rarely give quarter in a general action, and a distinct body of recruits follows the army to despatch with knives those who are wounded with a musket, and return with the personal spoil of the enemy. They even make a practice of cutting out the hearts of some of the slain, which they mix up with consecrated herbs, and after much ceremony and incantation, compel those who have never before killed an enemy, to eat part of the horrible portion. Of the heart of a celebrated enemy, the king and his dignitaries are said to partake; and their most warlike generals are distinguished by names descriptive of their peculiar modes of despatching or torturing their enemies. Thus, Apokon, the king, is called Aboâwessa, because he has been in the habit of cutting off their arms; Appia, Sheaboo, because he beats their heads in pieces with a stone; and Amanqua, Abiniowa, because he cuts off their legs. Sir Charles M'Carthy, it is feared, was despatched by these barbarians in this cruel manner.

The last power subdued, or the revolters recently quelled, are always compelled by the Ashantees to form the van of their army; the youngest captain marches first, and all the authorities in gradation of rank and seniority up to the king. The superior discipline and courage of their soldiery were in a moment perceptible, when they appeared in conflict with the people of the coast before Annamaboe; but the following are said to be the only maxims to which this is to be attributed: They never pursue an enemy at or near sunset; the general is always in the rear, the secondary captains 'ead the soldiers on, while the chiefs of divisions, surrounded by a few select followers, urge them forward with heavy swords, and cut down every

At the Yam Custom, an annual festival, and at the death of their great men, hundreds of human victims are said to be regularly sacrificed, and the sculls and other bones of their enemies are exhibited in their armoury, and as the ornaments of their state apartments. At all their great festivals and funerals, indeed, the slaughter of human beings is horribly frequent. Some of the former occur once in three weeks, when 100 are sometimes immolated. It should be observed, however, that these are often convicts. The king celebrated the death of his mother by the sacrifice of 3000 victims; and the funeral rites of a great caboceer were repeated at intervals for three months, during which 2400 persons were butchered.

According to the religious belief of the Ashantees, there are two distinct orders of gods; one of which, the higher order, takes care of the whites, the other of the blacks; they are believers in the immortality of the soul, and both their princes and nobility are supposed to enjoy the presence of the higher order of their deities after death. Here they regale themselves in epicurean indulgence, and have cooks and butlers after the fashion of their country. Persons of this description are, therefore, buried with their great men, whose reception in another world is supposed to be greatly regulated by the number of attendants with which they appear. The Ashantees have also two sets of priests; one class being devoted to the services of their temples and to preserving a communication with their deities, and the other class a sort of conjurors, and detectors of small theft. Every housekeeper also has his domestic gods and charms, bought of these cunning men. Polygamy is universally allowed, and the king claims the royal number of 3333 wives, which is regularly kept up; the ladies living in round enclosures, like pheasants in a park.'

The

A peculiar feature in the law of succession obtains in this country, and is binding from the royal family downwards. The brothers' children are always set aside in favor of sisters' children, on the ground that if the sons' wives are faithless, the blood of a family is lost in the offspring; but should the daughters deceive their husbands the father's blood is still preserved; thus, the sisters of the king are allowed to intrigue or marry with any personable man. king is heir to all the gold of any subject, and contributes to the funeral rites to assert his claim; the successor paying the debts of the deceased. Slaves, if ill treated, may transfer themselves from one master to another. They are a great article of traffic here, and the domestic drudges, of course, of the country. No topic appeared so inexplicable to the king as that of the British motives for abolishing the slave-trade. The slaves of an ally or tributary are scrupulously restored; those of an indifferent or enemy's

country may become free subjects of the state. An appeal lies for the subjects of any tributary power to the laws, and ultimately to the king of Ashantee.

Cowardice, treason, the murder of an equal, and some cases of adultery, are punishable with death, as are false accusations of treason. A great man killing his equal, is generally afterwards allowed to kill himself as a punishment; but the death of an inferior is compensated by a fine, paid to the family, of the value of seven slaves. Serious thefts are punished with a compensation inflicted on the family of the accused, who alone are suffered to punish him; but this they may do even capitally, if he be incorrigible. Trifling thefts are visited on the offender by exposing him at various parts of the town, and proclaiming his crime before him. But all vexatious suits and accusations are discouraged and punished. Polygamy is allowed to all ranks, but the wife's property is distinct from that of her husband, and the king is the heir of it. None but a captain can put his wife to death for infidelity, and even then he is expected to accept a liberal offer of gold for her redemption. To intrigue with the king's wives is death. If the family of a woman, on her complaint of ill-treatment, choose to tender to a man his marriage-fee, he must accept it; and the wife returns to her father's house, but can no more marry. 'The most entertaining delassement of our conversation,' says Mr. Bowdich, with the chiefs, was to introduce the liberty of English females; whom we represented, not only to possess the advantage of engaging the sole affection of a husband, but the more enviable privilege of choosing that husband for herself. The effect was truly comic; the women sidled up to wipe the dust from our shoes with their clothes, at the end of every sentence brushed off an insect, or picked a burr from our trowsers; the husbands expressing their dislike by a laugh, would put their hands before our mouths, declaring that they did not want to hear that palaver any more, abruptly changed the subject to war, and ordered the women to the harem.'

The foreign trade of Ashantee is regulated by the government, so far as to interdict commerce with any unfriendly power. It is in every other respect left free, though not much encouraged. The slaves of the capital are generally a part of the annual tribute of the neighbouring powers; but many are kidnapped throughout the country. They fetch but a trifle; but it is the most lucrative branch of their commerce with the coast; and the continuance of it under other flags, particularly the Spanish, while the British are prohibited from engaging in it, is represented by the intelligent writer, to whom we have been already so much indebted, as the most stubborn impe

diment to the negociations which he had to conduct at Ashantee. It not only injures the British commerce here,' says Mr. B. almost to annihilation; but, slavery being the natural trade of the natives, because it is the most indolent and the most lucrative, the opposition, which is insinuated and believed to proceed from the English alone, conveys a disagreeable impression of us to the interior, as inauspicious to our intercourse and progress, as the even partial continuance of such a trade is to legitimate commerce and civilisation. One thousand slaves left Ashantee, for two Spanish schooners, or Americans under that flag, to our knowledge, during our residence there; doubtless the whole number was much greater. Since our return it must have been very considerable, for the slave trade was never more brisk than it is at this moment, under the cloak of the Spanish flag; and great risk has been incurred, in consequence, of offending our new friend and formidable neighbour, the king of Ashantee, from the firm resistance of his strong entreaties to the governor-inchief to allow the return of a powerful mulatto slave-trader to Cape Coast Town, whence he had been expelled under the present governor, as the most daring promoter of that commerce.' How urgently does this press upon government, by all legitimate means, to urge the universal abolition of this accursed traffic! It is but 'crippled,' as this writer well remarks, at present, at the expense of our own interests and views in the interior; and, which is worse, of the happiness and improvement of the natives.'

Gold was seen everywhere in great abundance by the British emissaries; and the court of Coomassie, in silks, stuffs, cloths, and cottons, of every hue, was most imposing. Some of the captains wore ornaments of solid gold on their wrists, so large as to tire the hand, which rested on the head of a young slave. The tops of immense umbrellas were decorated with golden heads of pelicans, panthers, baboons, &c. as large as life.

Guns and gunpowder are never allowed to be exported from Ashantee; and the people in general have no idea of buying any thing but for the purpose of consumption, except a small number of articles of which they can make a profitable barter for tobacco, cloth, and silk, in the Inta and Dagwumba markets. Their situation bids fair, however, for their becoming the complete brokers between the interior and the European nations.

We subjoin a table of the most material articles of commerce between our settlement at Cape Coast Castle and the Coomassie market, and the profit they will yield, according to Mr. Bowdich, at the latter: