Fig. 230.—Eight shells of bronze gilt, forming part of a necklace.

Fig. 231.—Ten gold shells, which formed part of the King of Benin’s necklace. The shells appear to be “cerithidÆ.” They are cast hollow. The weight of the ten is 8¾ ounces.

Figs. 232 to 234.—Bronze statuette, representing a figure standing; with broad leaf-shaped sword, similar to Figs. 326, 327, 328 and 329, having a twisted ring pommel in right hand, and a sistrum in left hand. Coral choker, badge of rank. Three tribal marks over each eye. Agate head-dress, similar to Fig. 121, Plate XXI, and curved agate pendants on each side. A large twisted ring rises out of the head-dress, which looks as if intended to enclose some thick band of cloth or other substance to suspend it. The crown of the head-dress terminates in a thick cylindrical spike with a flat top, like Fig. 111, Plate XIX, Fig. 155, Plate XXV, and Figs. 167 and 168, Plate XXVI. The sistrum is ornamented with a full-length human figure, holding a staff in right hand and the so-called key or axe in left hand. Beneath the bowl of the sistrum are three projecting cruciform bars, and the upper edge of the bowl is ornamented on each side with two heads very rudely cast. Dr. Felix Roth, in the “Halifax Naturalist,” June, 1898, p. 33, speaks of these projecting prongs as being used for killing victims for sacrificial purposes, but the fact of their being sistri is shown in connection with Fig. 181, Plate XXVII. Sinuous serpents cover the shaft and bowl of the sistrum. The leaf-shaped sword is ornamented, front and back, with small imitations of itself. The figure has bands, probably of coral, crossing on the breast. The skirt is ornamented with conventionalized human heads with long hair and rows of guilloche pattern. Ankles have coral anklets. The skirt is bound up in the usual manner in a band behind the left shoulder. There is a band of small bells round the hips, and a human head and a bunch of bells on the left side. This figure was obtained from the Liverpool Museum, in the report of which it is elaborately described and figured with three others like it. “Bulletin of the Liverpool Museums,” Vol. I, No. 2, p. 59. There is a figure like this in the British Museum. It is of considerable weight, being cast solid.

Figs. 235 and 236.—Bronze figure of a native, holding what appears to be a flint-lock gun, but the hammer of the lock is broken off. The stock is ornamented with a debased human head. The figure has a leopard’s skin on front and back, tail and hind legs of which are shown behind; the tail terminates in a square bell. Sword in sheath on right side and a dagger under the arm on left side, with small bags on both sides. There is a row of eighteen cartridges in the waist-belt in front. The cartridges appear to be stuck upright into sockets in the belt. A curved horn powder-flask is on the belt on the left side. Pleated kilt below waist-belt. On the ground, touching the feet, is a decapitated head and nine large pellets, perhaps cannon balls. The pedestal ornamented with interlaced strap-work, alternating with oval figures, in character resembling the ornament on the stock of the gun. It stands on a framework of curved bars, now broken. The breeches are ornamented with vertical rows of circles. Although this figure holds a flint-lock gun, it is undoubtedly a native, as three tribal marks are shown above each eye. The face is also prognathic. The head-dress seems to be of a woven material.