52 BULLETIN OF THE LIVERPOOL MUSEUMS. 
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 favour me, the same officer says : “ The 
figures you mention were very different in variety. One I saw was evidently that 
of a Por tuguese soldier or sailor of, I should think, the seventeenth century. 
Others were 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 carry 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 appr eciating vee 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 
another 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- 
ports. They may, perhaps, be 
the “melted copper” referred 
to in the Collection of African 
Travels by John Ogilby,* 
published in 1670, from ac- 
counts written, probably about 
1630,by Peter de Marcez,‘‘ who, 
even to these times, gives us so 
large a Description [of the 
places lying along the Sea coast 
of the Negroes’ Country] that 
it descends to the meanest Vil- 
lage,” and by Samuel Blomert, 
“who, remaining long in those 
parts, being very inquisitive, 
hath rendered a more large 
and exact accompt concerning 
Guinee 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 supported on Pillars 
of Wood, cover’d from the top to the bottom with melted Copper, whereon 
are Ingrav en their Warlike Deeds and Battels, and are kept with exceeding 
curiosity.” This picture suggests almost a barbaric Nebuchadnezzar’s palace. 

Fic. 4.—FiIGurRE oF A WomAN oF HIGH Rank. 
* For the opportunity of consulting this rare volume I am indebted to the kindness 
of Mr. James Irvine, F.R.G.S., Liverpool. 
