File:Antique Works of Art from Benin 47.jpg

Fig. 346.--Quadrangular bronze bell, ornamented with mud-fish and a human head in relief. It is reticulated on all sides and could have emitted no sound.

Fig. 347.--Quadrangular bronze bell, ornamented on one side by a degenerate human face in relief. The ornamentation tastefully designed.

Fig. 348.--Bronze cock, somewhat similar to Fig. 301, Plate XL.

Fig. 349.--Brass armlet, made from one piece of thin metal, joined by copper rivets. Ornamented by three naked human figures in relief, and bands of interlaced rings.

Figs. 350 and 351.--Bronze trumpet, slightly curved, the mouth-hole on the convex side, similar in form to the ivory trumpets, Figs. 178, 192 and 193. Projecting blades, like celts, on the large end, as in the sistrum in Figs. 232 to 234, Plate XXXI. A somewhat similar instrument is figured by Mr. Ling Roth in the "Halifax Naturalist," June, 1898, p. 32. Above these blades is a human head in relief, surmounted by a circular ring held in the mouth of a crocodile, head downwards. Other parts are ornamented by sinuous snakes in relief. It appears to have been used both as trumpet and axe.

Figs. 352 and 353.--Bronze staff, probably intended to be held in the middle. Ornamented at both ends with human figures back to back. The stem ornamented with loops as in Figs. 208 and 209, Plate XXIX.

Figs. 354 and 355.--Bronze staff, 4 feet 10-1/2 inches in length; ornamented at top with the figure of a bird with a small ball in its mouth, and apparently surmounting a leopard. Around it are ten leaf-shaped flanges ornamented with sinuous serpents, holding birds and crocodiles in their mouths. Below this is a human figure standing with very large hands, apparently clasped, and thumbs projecting upwards, out of all proportion to the size of the body; on the shoulders of this figure are two sinuous snakes. Below this are figures representing a monkey and a bull. The central figure is nude and kneeling with a cock in its hands, resting on a cluster of hanging bells. The lower part, which is broken and detached from the upper part, represents a human figure; in his left hand a large neolithic celt, and in his right hand a human-headed staff, similar in design to Figs. 279 and 280, Plate XXXVI. Below and in front of this figure are smaller figures, representing a human figure with a neolithic celt in the right hand and a spotted leopard, with tail curled over head, on the left. Rising from the head of the larger figure is an antelope, with two snakes springing out of its mouth, surrounded by representations of various weapons, points upwards. The whole appears to