1. A remarkable number of customs common to the Jews and the Gha.
2. The probable origin of the latter population in some part of the interior of Africa, north of their present locality, and, perhaps, in the parts about Timbuktu.
The Quaquas.—I am not sure that this name is the best that can be given to the class in question. Hence, it is merely provisional. The language that is spoken by them is called the Avekvom. They constitute the chief population of the Ivory—just as the Krumen do that of the Grain and the Fantis that of the Gold—Coast. Apollonia is the English dependency where we find members of the Quaqua stock.
The Avekvom dialects of the Quaqua tribes seem to belong to a different tongue from that of the Krumen and Fantis; and I imagine that the three are mutually unintelligible. Still, it is difficult to predicate this from the mere inspection of vocabularies; the more so, as no language of the western coast of Africa is less known than the Avekvom—the only specimen of any length being one in the last number of the "Journal of the American Oriental Society." With numerous miscellaneous affinities, it is more Fanti and Grebo than aught else; and, perhaps, is transitional in character to those two languages.[67]
At any rate it is no isolated tongue, as may be seen from the following table, where Yebu means the language of the Yarriba country, at the back of Dahomey, and Efik that of Old Calabar:—
| ENGLISH. | AVEKVOM. | OTHER IBO-ASHANTI LANGUAGES. |
| Arm | ebo | ubok, Efik. |
| Blood | evie | eyip, Efik; eye, Yebu. |
| Bone | ewi | beu, Fanti. |
| Box | ebru | brânh, Grebo. |
| Canoe | edie | tonh, Grebo. |
| Chair | fata | bada, Grebo. |
| Dark | eshim | esum, Fanti; ekim, Efik. |
| Dog | etye | aja, ayga, Yebu. |
| Door | eshinavi | usuny, Efik. |
| Ear | eshibe | esoa, Fanti. |
| Fire | eya | ija, Fanti. |
| Fish | etsi | eja, eya, Fanti. |
| Fowl | esu | suseo, Mandingo; edia, Yebu. |
| Ground-nut | ngeti | nkatye, Fanti. |
| Hair | emu | ihwi, Fanti. |
| Honey | ajo | ewo, Fanti; oyi, Yebu. |
| House | eva | ifi, Fanti; ufog, Efik. |
| Moon | efe | hâbo, Grebo; ofiong, Efik. |
| Mosquito | efo | obong, Fanti. |
| Oil | inyu | ingo, Fanti. |
| Rain | efuzumo-sohn | sanjio, Mandingo. |
| Rainy season | eshi | ojo, rain, Yebu. |
| Salt | etsa | ta, Grebo. |
| Sand | esian-na | utan, Efik. |
| Sea | etyu | idu, Grebo. |
| Stone | desi | sia, shia, Grebo. |
| Thread | jesi | gise, Grebo. |
| Tooth | enena | nyeng, Mandingo; gne, Grebo.[68] |
| Water | esonh | nsu, Fanti. |
| Wife | emise | muso, Mandingo; mbesia, Fanti. |
| Cry | yaru | isu, Fanti. |
| Give | nae | nye, Grebo; no, Efik. |
| Go | le | olo, Yebu. |
| Kill | bai | fa, Mandingo; pa, Yebu. |
There has been war and displacement here as well as in the Gha country. In the seventeenth century the parts about Cape Apollonia were contended for by two tribes called the Issini (or Oshin) and the Ghiomo. The former gave way to the latter, and having retreated to the country of the Veteres, were joined by that tribe against the Esiep.
A Quaqua prayer is given in the "Mithridates." It is uttered every morning by the tribes on the Issini, after a previous ablution in that river—Anghiume mame maro, mame orie, mame shikke e okkori, mame akaka, mame frembi, mame anguan e awnsan—O Anghiume! give rice, give yams, give gold, give aigris, give slaves, give riches, give (to be) strong and swift.
What is here written about the ethnology of Apollonia is written doubtfully; since here, as at Acra, the simple ethnology of the pure and proper Fantis becomes complicated.
The Cape of Good Hope.—The aboriginal population[69] of the Cape is divided between two great families:—