3-065-739 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches of the Ashantee War by our special artist: native soldiers playing at "Warry", 1874. Third Anglo-Ashanti War - the British Army in West Africa. 'In an hour of repose on the march to Coomassie [ie Kumasi], natives belonging to the force may be seen playing at the negro game of "warry." Twelve cups are ranged before them, and four of the large seeds, picked from the neighbouring bush, are put into each cup. Each player has to pass his hand round the board a certain number of times, and there are certain rules by which he may take a seed from one cup and place it in another. Our Artist watched the game, but could not quite understand its rules. The winner is he who at the end holds most seeds in his cup. They are as intent and silent over this game as our chess-players or whist-players, and large sums of money - in one instance so much as £17 - are often staked upon it. In that instance the money was snatched up by a man of another tribe, who ran away with it. He was pursued by the players, and they got it back from him. Gambling is the vice of barbarians in every land'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.