dge,[29] is held to have been of
Sudanese origin.

Such, then, is an abbreviated account of the carved works which during
the last generation have been discovered to have been produced by
black folk on the West Coast of Africa in ancient and medieval times.

We shall next turn for a brief consideration to the glass and
porcelain objects, including terra cottas. So far as can be
determined, very little or no work of importance which can be classed
under this head had come from the Benin country. By stretching the
category, however, one might include under this head the finely
polished marble-like walls which have been described in connection
with the houses of the Benin territory. One might also include under
this head the benches which were seen in the Benin houses in former
times. The typical character of these benches may be noted from the
brief description given by Captain Jas. Fawckner,[30] who visited the
country in 1825. After describing the houses, he says that "in the
center is a bench formed of brown clay, which by frequent rubbing with
a piece of coconut shell and wet cloths has received a polish, and,
when dry, looks like marble."

A few hundred miles to the West, in the Gold Coast region, is the home
of the famous "aggry" beads. These beads, the manufacture of which is
now a lost art, were found in the possession of natives by the
earliest European explorers.[31] The beads are of two kinds, a plain
type and a variegated. "The plain aggry beads," say Bowdich, who made
a careful study of them, "are blue, yellow, green or a dull red; the
variegated consist of many colors and shades; the variegated strata of
the aggry bead are so firmly united and so imperceptibly blended that
the perfection seems superior to art. Some resemble mosaic work; the
surface of others is covered with flowers and regular patterns so very
minute and the shades so delicately softened one into the other and
into the ground of the bead that nothing but the finest touch of the
pen could equal them. The agate parts disclose flowers and patterns
deep in the body of the bead and thin shafts of opaque colors running
from the center to the surface. The coloring matter of the blue bead
has been proved by experiment to be iron; that of the yellow, without
doubt, is lead and antimony, with a trifling quantity of copper,
though this latter is not essential to the production of the color.
The generality of these beads appears to be produced from c