File:Bulletin of the Liverpool Museums (1897 - 1901) (20271577399).jpg

Title: Bulletin of the Liverpool Museums
Identifier: bulletinofliverp01forb (find matches)
Year: - 1901 1897 - 1901 (1890s)
Authors: Forbes, H
Subjects:
Publisher:
Contributing Library: Natural History Museum Library, London
Digitizing Sponsor: Natural History Museum Library, London

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Bl'LLETIX OF THE LIVERPOOL Ml'SEl'MS. from age, very few of modern date were to be seen and these mostly un- carved." And in a private letter, containing some additional particulars, with which he has been so good as to favonr me, the same officer says : " The figures you mention were very different in vai iety. One I saw was evidently that of a Poitnguese soldier or sailor of, I should think, the seventeenth century. Others Avere of naked figures, but a peculiarity of Benin was, that nothing of a really indecent nature was found there; and I can quite believe, what I have heard advanced as an explanation, that they were not sufficiently civilised to carrj^ indecency into their ornaments ; that they were rather ' the animal'" than ' the sensualist.' The plaques and figures were apparently thrown away, the Beni seemingly not appreciating their beauty. They may have been the spoils of some campaign, taken as fetishes, but they had no place in the decoration of the houses or town, nor had the Beni any form of idol." According to a!iother correspondent, a Niger Coast Protectorate Officer on the expedition, these plaques had been so long neglected that " a number of them were sunk in the ground and buried simply by long lying in one place." All the plaques show nail holes at the corners, by which they had at one time been affixed to probably wooden sup- poits. They may, perhaps, be the "melted copper" referred to in the Collection of African Tiavels by John Ogilby,* published in 1670, from ac- counts written, jirobably about 163U,by Peter de Marcez," who, even to these times, gives us so large a Description (of the places h'ing along the Sea coast of the Negroes' Country) that it descends to the meanest A'il- lage,' and by Samuel Blomert, " who, remaining long in those parts, being very iuipiisitive, hath rendered a more large and exact accompt concerning Fig. 4.-FK;rRE of a Woman of Hi.;h Rank. Quinee than the former." They describe the King's palace as quadrangular, " subdivided into several stately Court, Houses and Apartments in the Countries ; containing within fair and long Galleries, one larger than the other, but all supjiorted on Pillars of Wood, cover'd from the top to the bottom with melted Copper, whereon are Ingraven their Warlike Deeds and Battels, and are kept with exceeding curiosity." This picture suggests almost a barbaric Nebuchadnezzar's palace.
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* For the opportunity of con.sultingthis rare volume I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. James Irvine, F.R.G.S., LiverpooL

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