"These are stumpy columns from fourteen to twenty-four inches high. Sometimes the flat surfaces have a ring between them and sometimes not. Both quartz and granite examples are characterized by extraordinary uniformity of shape and surface polish. Their single handles at the side, mostly broken off, is the strangest part."
Frobenius comments especially upon the tendency of these objects to "monumental form." In this connection he says:
"Following the lines of everything taught us in the development of historical art, I can not well help drawing the inference that this idea of working in stone was introduced by a people who felt themselves impelled to monumental expression."[26]
The origin and variety of these carved objects in stone offer us a very interesting point, yet one may reasonably infer from his other statements that here in the Ilife, as in the Benin region, granite, quartz and hard stone materials are in their natural state very, very limited, if not altogether absent. Like Benin, Ilife is in the Niger delta region, and, as Frobenius points, is of rather a swampy character. It is a geological fact that hard stone in any quantity is seldom to be found in such regions. In addition to this, Frobenius, as was pointed out above, states that the foundations of the ancient buildings are of burnt brick rather than sun-dried brick or stone. It is very reasonable to suppose that hard stone, had it been in any way common to this area, would certainly have been used for building operations. One seems more or less justified in concluding, then, that the materials out of which the above-described objects were made were not of local origin. This circumstance is very important, for it seems to indicate that either these materials were imported from a distance and fashioned on the spot or else they were imported already in their finished form. If the first view be accepted, it would seem in a measure to account, on the one hand, for the obvious lack of skill on the part of the African artist as expressed in the archaic human and animal forms; but, on the other hand, it would, as is seen in the case of the "stools" mentioned above, seem to indicate a rather remarkable liberty and grace on the part of the Negro artist, implying his ability to become a master even when working with a comparatively unfamiliar material. For as Frobenius says, "the dexterity acquired in treating quartz and granite is very considerable. There is a quantity of eminently beautiful examples of such skill in this country."[27]
If we accept the latter view, namely, that the objects were imported ready made, it would seem to indicate that there must have been a rather extensive trade with some other Negro folk having a rather advanced form of culture, for it is obviously apparent from the distinctively Negro features of the statuettes and the undoubted Negro influence as expressed in the style of the "stools" that these objects must have been the products of a Negro people. A slight hint for such an origin may be gleaned from the finding by Frobenius of the handle of an antique cup, of which he testifies that the carved figure thereon resembles very much the effigy of the Ethiopian or Nubian god Bes,[28] and which, according to Budge,[29] is held to have been of Sudanese origin.
Such, then, is an abbreviated account of the carved works which during the last generation have been discovered to have been produced by black folk on the West Coast of Africa in ancient and medieval times.
We shall next turn for a brief consideration to the glass and porcelain objects, including terra cottas. So far as can be determined, very little or no work of importance which can be classed under this head had come from the Benin country. By stretching the category, however, one might include under this head the finely polished marble-like walls which have been described in connection with the houses of the Benin territory. One might also include under this head the benches which were seen in the Benin houses in former times. The typical character of these benches may be noted from the brief description given by Captain Jas. Fawckner,[30] who visited the country in 1825. After describing the houses, he says that "in the center is a bench formed of brown clay, which by frequent rubbing with a piece of coconut shell and wet cloths has received a polish, and, when dry, looks like marble."
A few hundred miles to the West, in the Gold Coast region, is the home of the famous "aggry" beads. These beads, the manufacture of which is now a lost art, were found in the possession of natives by the earliest European explorers.[31] The beads are of two kinds, a plain type and a variegated. "The plain aggry beads," say Bowdich, who made a careful study of them, "are blue, yellow, green or a dull red; the variegated consist of many colors and shades; the variegated strata of the aggry bead are so firmly united and so imperceptibly blended that the perfection seems superior to art. Some resemble mosaic work; the surface of others is covered with flowers and regular patterns so very minute and the shades so delicately softened one into the other and into the ground of the bead that nothing but the finest touch of the pen could equal them. The agate parts disclose flowers and patterns deep in the body of the bead and thin shafts of opaque colors running from the center to the surface. The coloring matter of the blue bead has been proved by experiment to be iron; that of the yellow, without doubt, is lead and antimony, with a trifling quantity of copper, though this latter is not essential to the production of the color. The generality of these beads appears to be produced from clays colored in thin layers, afterwards twisted together into a spiral form, and then cut across; also from different colored clays raked together without blending. How the flowers and delicate patterns on the body and on the surface of the rarer beads have been produced cannot be so well explained."[32]
In the earlier days, when much less was known of the technical and artistic ability of the African, the origin of these beads was quite a problem. The fact that similar beads were sometimes found in tombs in North Africa and in the graves and tombs of ancient Egypt and India led some to suppose them of probable Phoenician origin. Such a theory implies the existence of a rather extensive trade between the ancient Phoenicians and the ancient Africans of the West Coast. This may have been the case, for from Herodotus, and from the fragments of Hanno from the Temple of Milcarth in Carthage, we learn that frequent voyages were made beyond the Straits of Gibraltar and to the Gold Coast hundreds of years before Christ by Phoenicians as well as the Egyptians. This theory would, however, imply an act of conservation and preservation of minute objects over a period of thousands of years on the part of African "savages," which, to say the least, would be very remarkable. It is likely, in the light of recent research upon the subject, that the Phoenician theory will have to be made with caution; for, as will be pointed out, there is now available much evidence which seems to indicate that these beads were of indigenous African origin.