Gold-dust is the only coin of the realm; and travellers who would pass north of the Protectorate must buy it on the coast. It is handier than one would suppose; even a farthing can be paid in it by putting one or two grains upon a knife-tip, and there is a name, _peseha_ (Port. _peso_?), for a pennyworth. Larger values go by weight; the _aki_ (_ackie_), [Footnote: The word _aki_ sounds much like the Arab _roukkah_ or _roukkiyah_. Its weight, the 16th of an ounce, never varies; but the value ranges from 4_s_. 6_d_. to 5_s_., according as the ounce is worth 3_l_. 12_s_. to 4_l_. 10_s_., the average being assumed at 4_l_. Other proportions are:-- The _toku_ (carat-seed) = 5_d_. The _benna_ = 2 _akis_. The _periquen_, _pereguen_, or _peredroano_ = 32 _akis_, or two ounces in weight; and ranging in value from 9_l_. to 10_l_. (Bowdich, p. 283). The word is Ashanti, little used by the Fantis. For a list of these complicated gold weights, of which Mr. Grant has promised me a set, see Appendix B, _ A Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language_, Rev. Christaller, Basel, 1881.] or sixteenth of an ounce, being the unit of value. The people may be persuaded to take an English sovereign, but they spurn a French napoleon. Amongst the many desiderata of the Coast is a law making all our silver coins legal tenders. At present the natives will scarcely take anything but threepenny-bits, new and bright and bearing H.B.M.'s 'counterfeit presentment.' Copper has been tried, but was made to fail by a clever District-commissioner, who refused to take the metal in payment of Government dues. The old cowrie-currency, of which the _tapo_, or score, represented two farthings, is all but extinct. Its name will be preserved in the proverb, 'There is no market wherein the dove with the pouting breast (the _cypraea_) has not traded.' The same is the case with the oldest money, round and perforated quartz-stones, which suggest the ring-coinage of ancient Egypt. From Inyenapoli, preceded by King Blay, who so managed that a fair path had been hastily cut through the bush, we struck inland, the course being northwards, bending to the north-east and east. The first hour, covering some three miles, lay partly over a flat plain of grass used for thatch, pimpled with red anthills and broken by lines and patches of dense jungle. These savannahs are common near the sea; we had already remarked one behind Bein. They denote the 'false coast,' and they become during the wet season almost impassable swamps and mud-fields.