70 BULLETIN OF THE LIVERPOOL MUSEUMS. 
civilisation. Commander Forbes, who visited Dahomey in 1851, remarks 
that some of the members of the Royal household ‘‘ were distinguished by a 
pair of small silver horns, such as are commonly worn in the northern parts 
of Africa, and especially in Abyssinia.” 
It seems not improbable, therefore, as another explanation of the presence 
of such high works of art in Benin, that, several centuries ago, the city may 
have been occupied by an offshoot of the same Central Soudan race with 
the leaven of Abyssinian or even Egyptian influences among them, as now 
occupies Nupe, a few hundred miles further north; but that, through inter- 
course with the low coast tribes, they became demoralised and gradually 
degenerated into their present low civilisation. The plaques and statues, 
discovered in the city, may, therefore, be the relics of a former high civilisa- 
tion, or they may, as Commander Bacon suggests to me, have been the spoils 
of some campaign, kept as fetishes. When, however, their full history is 
elucidated, we shall undoubtedly recover more than one lost and unsuspected, 
but very interesting, chapter in the history of West Africa, and of the in- 
fluences that have been at work there in remote times. In any case, the 
Museum is fortunate in having had the opportunity of making these splendid 
additions to its rapidly growing West African collection. * 
* While these sheets were in the press, I was favoured by the receipt of a separate 
forward copy of Messrs. C. H. Read and O. M. Dalton’s very interesting paper on Works 
of Art from Benin City, about to appear in the February part of the Journal of the 
Anthropological Institute, where those interested in this subject, will find much valu- 
able information, and also a number of illustrations of some of the more remarkable 
plaques in the National Collection. 
! 
‘ ( 
i j= 
14 WAR. 98 

