DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0261
190
O. Bates and E. A. Hooton
possibility of its relationship to the gold-weight shown in fig. 12 strike any but a prac-
tised ethnologist. It is otherwise if we compare it with the weight in fig. 13 — if the blades
of the latter were a little more rounded at the ends, and if they were approached a little
more closely together, the resemblance between this brass specimen
from Ashanti, and the wooden one from Benin, would be striking.
The latter specimen at the root of the joined blades has on each
face two human heads placed side by side. The chins of these
heads, like those of the animal heads of figs. 3, 4, 8, and 13, and
like that of the jaw in fig. 6, are toward the hilt. In the light of
what has been said it cannot be doubted that the original interpre-
tation of the Benin specimen was correct.
A far more violent departure from the original than that pre-
sented by the Benin specimen is that offered by the gold-weight
shown in fig. 14. But even here can be no doubt as to how the
object was evolved. The habit of setting two opposed blades in a
single handle had become so common that the resulting Y-form
was recognized as a commonplace. The maker of the gold-weight
of fig. 14, thoroughly familiar with the bifid type, and careless or
ignorant of its original significance, has here mounted in the old
dumb-bell shaped handle two long spathes of the oil-palm(?). A similar indifference to
origins is seen in the case of the Benin wood carving8 shown in fig. 15, where the chief
is grasping in his right hand a “beheading knife” — the blade of which is decorated with
outlines of blades of like shape — and in his left a Y-shaped insignium the two arms of
which terminate in hands. In text fig. A and in fig. 15, as the reader may see, the form
of hilt has changed from the dumb-bell type to one in which the grip has a flat, disc-shaped
pommel and guard. The difference is not, however, one of importance.
It is not in the case of these swords alone that this tendency toward conventionaliza-
tion by what may be called coalescence is to be seen: precisely the same freakish habit
is displayed in the Ashanti treatment of the crocodile. In figs. 17 and 18 are examples
of the single animals: in fig. 19 is seen a pair in saltire. In fig. 20 is a similar crossed
pair, which, while hardly less conventional than the foregoing, is by its more consolidated
form, ready to develop into a figure9 which would at first glance seem but remotely con-
nected with the crocodile of fig. 17. In fig. 16 is seen a pair of crocodiles which have as it
were coalesced: the two tails and bodies are now one, and only the heads and necks are
8 Lieut.-General Pitt Rivers, Antique Works of art from Benin, London, 1900, pl. 6, fig. 27.
9 The difference in shape of figs. 18, 19 may be due to the fact that the artist’s fancy has been influenced by
lizard-forms.
Text fig. A.
O. Bates and E. A. Hooton
possibility of its relationship to the gold-weight shown in fig. 12 strike any but a prac-
tised ethnologist. It is otherwise if we compare it with the weight in fig. 13 — if the blades
of the latter were a little more rounded at the ends, and if they were approached a little
more closely together, the resemblance between this brass specimen
from Ashanti, and the wooden one from Benin, would be striking.
The latter specimen at the root of the joined blades has on each
face two human heads placed side by side. The chins of these
heads, like those of the animal heads of figs. 3, 4, 8, and 13, and
like that of the jaw in fig. 6, are toward the hilt. In the light of
what has been said it cannot be doubted that the original interpre-
tation of the Benin specimen was correct.
A far more violent departure from the original than that pre-
sented by the Benin specimen is that offered by the gold-weight
shown in fig. 14. But even here can be no doubt as to how the
object was evolved. The habit of setting two opposed blades in a
single handle had become so common that the resulting Y-form
was recognized as a commonplace. The maker of the gold-weight
of fig. 14, thoroughly familiar with the bifid type, and careless or
ignorant of its original significance, has here mounted in the old
dumb-bell shaped handle two long spathes of the oil-palm(?). A similar indifference to
origins is seen in the case of the Benin wood carving8 shown in fig. 15, where the chief
is grasping in his right hand a “beheading knife” — the blade of which is decorated with
outlines of blades of like shape — and in his left a Y-shaped insignium the two arms of
which terminate in hands. In text fig. A and in fig. 15, as the reader may see, the form
of hilt has changed from the dumb-bell type to one in which the grip has a flat, disc-shaped
pommel and guard. The difference is not, however, one of importance.
It is not in the case of these swords alone that this tendency toward conventionaliza-
tion by what may be called coalescence is to be seen: precisely the same freakish habit
is displayed in the Ashanti treatment of the crocodile. In figs. 17 and 18 are examples
of the single animals: in fig. 19 is seen a pair in saltire. In fig. 20 is a similar crossed
pair, which, while hardly less conventional than the foregoing, is by its more consolidated
form, ready to develop into a figure9 which would at first glance seem but remotely con-
nected with the crocodile of fig. 17. In fig. 16 is seen a pair of crocodiles which have as it
were coalesced: the two tails and bodies are now one, and only the heads and necks are
8 Lieut.-General Pitt Rivers, Antique Works of art from Benin, London, 1900, pl. 6, fig. 27.
9 The difference in shape of figs. 18, 19 may be due to the fact that the artist’s fancy has been influenced by
lizard-forms.
Text fig. A.