"Mischlich to Basel"

Reports the death of an Akim merchant in Katsenke died while drunk and everyone believed that he had died because of the drink (liquor). His two wives were there and had shaved their heads. The corpse was wrapped in 'a coloured heathen cloth', with a large silver chain round the neck, and silver coins by its side. Mischlich went round the alleys of the town to invite people to preaching - 'everywhere I met small groups of merchants, singing and lamenting.' At the entrance to the town 4 drunken merchants were dancing around the grave of another merchant who had died several weeks before - though Mischlich spoke to them earnestly they were prepared only to pour away the liquor they had in glasses - not the whole bottle, At his preaching there were 80 merchants present. Mischlich preached - apparently - quite straightforwardly about the danger of hellfire, and the fact that this death was a punishment for not heeding the warnings that he - Martin - had been issuing. There was no contradiction - the elder of the townspeople only said that Mischlich's warnings about liquor were evidently true. It is above all the Akim merchants who bring it - several important chiefs have asked Mischlich to write to the Kaiser to ask him to stop the trade in spirits, but part of the trouble is the fact that the local people coin their own money - 20x3 cm balls of rubber will buy a bottle of liquor.

16.09.1897

16.09.1897

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