FAMOUS ivorn' treasures of a negro king 



529 



ment in tluMr aii tlian ilir Miii),i:'l>rtu of 

 the Uole, the latter rank foremost 

 among negroes in the carving of ivory, 

 which is so essentially cininrcted with 

 luxury.^ Their kings alone, by contin- 

 ued encouragement of it, succeeded in 

 building up so dillieult an art. Their 

 superiority in many other lines has 

 been enthusiastically commented upon 

 by the few explort'rs and travelers visit- 

 ing their count ry.- 



Living in the heart of Africa, eigh- 

 teen hundred miles inland, far removed 

 from trade routes, these people wm-e 

 shielded from foreign influence; and 

 ethnological specimens illustrating 

 their skill seldom reached civilized 

 countries. These Mangbetu were can- 

 nibals of the worst repute. Under King 

 Munza's reign (18T0) they inhabited 

 the fertile regions about the northeast- 

 ern edge of the African rain forest and, 

 toward the end of the last century, 

 nearly lost their independence in a stub- 

 born contest with the warlike Azande. 

 Their kings claimed power over life 

 and death and incidentally raised art 

 to an extraordinarily high standard. 

 Of all negro potentates not influenced 

 by higher civilization, they boasted the 

 greatest architects. Their dance halls, 

 compared with ordinary negro huts, 

 were gigantic palaces; one l)uilt during 



' Tlie famous ivory carvings from the former 

 negro kingdom of Benin, on the Niger delta, sliow 

 a strong infusion of foreign influence, and can 

 hardly be attributed to pure negro art. Nor can 

 the natives of Loango (north of the mouth of the 

 Congo) make any legitimate claim; for they are 

 encouraged by traders and other white men to 

 make processionally carved tusks, which sometimes 

 are skOlfuUy executed, but which represent a 

 motley of European ideas badly jumbled in a ne- 

 gro's brain. At Stanleyville, in the Belgian 

 Congo. I saw more than a hundred tusks carved 

 in relief with subjects wending their way from 

 the root toward the tip. Human beings, perform- 

 ing various feats, were the favorite subjects. Ele- 

 phants, leopards, antelopes, crocodiles, lizards, but- 

 terflies, flowers, and leaves were rendered in poor, 

 school-boy fashion. Since the exportation of small 

 tusks is forbidden by law, these were transformed 

 into works of art, exported to Antwerp, and from 

 there sent to Khartum where they became Egyp- 

 tian curios, to the delight of foreign visitors. 



- Schweinfurtli's able description has an added 

 value, for in 1870 he lived at King Munza's court, 

 which .Junker, Emin Pasha, and Casati also vis- 

 ited. Boyd Alexander (1906) assisted at a dance, 

 and Schubotz (1910) spent a fortnight there. 



our sojoui'u tliei-e measured 35 feet in 

 lu'iglit. .so in width, and 200 in length. 

 Artistic features were impressed upon 

 e\ery object, and the barbaric splendor 

 t)f their court and the rigor of public 

 ceremonies were as much a surprise to 

 us as they had been to Schweinfurth. 

 (We, fortunately, were spared the grue- 

 some sight of piles of liuuian skulls 

 of devoured victims, lying about refuse 

 lieaps from tlie king's kitchen.) The 

 veneration of the people for their auto- 

 cratic chieftains is as overwhelming as 

 their fear, and any object of beauty or 

 value is oft'ercd speedily to them as a 

 gift, for possession might mean ruin to 

 its owner. 



That the negro race produces a 

 smaller number of superior men than 

 other peoples becomes particularly evi- 

 dent in these regions. Perhaps it was 

 the fact that these riders surrounded 

 themselves with the few men of talent 

 and ability they could bring together 

 that raised Mangbetu domination to 

 such heights. No wonder thousands of 

 subjects flocked to the court to see the 

 spectacular exhibitions. Thus we can 

 understand why tyrants, who daily 

 slaughtered a dozen prisoners bound to 

 the stake, to furnish meat for their 

 household of hundreds of queens, would 

 grant generous protection to artists. 

 These, in turn, surrounded by a bewil- 

 dering chaos of rapidly rising and fall- 

 ing destinies, had grave reasons to 

 please their ma.?ter, and naturally 

 strove to outdo one another in eager 

 competition. Credited by popular be- 

 lief with supernatural acquisition of 

 talent, they formed a small caste to 

 which access could be gained only 

 through initiation, and any one at- 

 tempting to compete with them invited 

 severe misfortune or forfeited his life. 

 They even fashioned their own tools ; 

 thus the rude ax, the sharp chisels and 

 l)lades. the rough saw, the handles and 

 special tools, are their liandiwork. 



That a real industry never was built 

 up cannot be imputed to these restric- 



