514 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1930 



cut from solid wood. (PI. 7, fig. 1.) The Vai and Ewe of Liberia 

 make elaborately carved, curved, and flat seat stools, some with a 

 center column surrounded by four legs like the stools of the Ashanti. 

 (PL 13, figs. 2 and 3.) The Vai and Grebo have another kind of 

 stool of box-shape neatly laid up of squared strips of wood in log 

 cabin fashion. (PI. 13, fig. 1.) In the Niger-Benue region, multiple- 

 leg stools are found. 



In the Belgian and French Congo a great variety of stools are 

 made, some of them remarkable examples of the wood-carver's skill. 

 Among the Baluba and Sankerru is found a one or two legged stool 

 with openwork curved elliptic seat. (PL 10, fig. 1.) These suggest 

 (he chief's backrest collected by Herbert Ward (pi. 10, fig. 2), and 

 utilized by him in posing his notable bronze statue, " The Chief of the 

 Tribe," in the National Museum (pi. 11). One of the stools in this 

 collection is carved from a log, has a band indicating four legs, and is 

 carved on the back with a lattice or rickrack pattern on which is 

 represented a climbing snake. (PL 8.) 



An elaborately decorated 4-legged stool with nearly straight seat 

 having projections of human heads at the ends, is from the Congo 

 collection by Herbert Ward. (PL 7, fig. 3.) In the Ward collection 

 is also a notable specimen of wood carving consisting of two disks 

 connected with four decorated bowed bands. (PL 9, fig. 1.) In 

 another specimen a woman sits on a disk and holds up the seat on her 

 head and arms. (PL 9, fig. 2.) As an example of what may be con- 

 sidered acculturation, a 4-legged stool with back braced by thongs 

 is shown from the Gribo of the western Sudan. (PL 7, fig. 2.) 



In the C. C. Roberts collection in the United States National 

 Museum from the Ashanti of the ivory coast of the Niger River 

 Basin, is a fine stool of hardwood in the form of a leopard, the 

 realistic carving, especially the head, reminding one of the Egyptian 

 carvings of cats. (See Maspero, Art in Egypt, N. Y., 1922, Fig. 195.) 

 (PL 12, fig. 2.) Another, from the Cameroon, more conventionally 

 carved, gives an impression of the massive stolidity of an elephant 

 at rest. The handling of masses and relating of lines is worthy of 

 study. (PL 12, fig. 1.) 



Asia for the most part shows no development of seating furniture, 

 a reclining position and cushions being indicated for the customs 

 of the predominating peoples. Among the less civilized peoples of 

 Malaysia, stools occur. In the island of Nias, round and oblong 

 4-legged stools for common use are seen. (PL 14, figs. 1-3.) Figures 

 of ancestral gods in carved wood are sometimes seated on a 4-legged 

 stool and also on a cylindrical support. (PL 15, figs. 1-2.) The 

 Tagals of the Philippines make 4-legged joined bamboo seats, but 

 these may or may not show traces of acculturation. (PL 16, figs. 



