according to Ling Roth, is their
variety. Another feature is their play upon patterns. For example, the
same pattern which is seen in one bracelet is so adapted and reduced
in another as to produce a very different effect. Spirals as a basis
of design are not uncommon. "And they are often so twisted and
interwoven that they produce quite a novel effect." Some of the
bracelets are furnished with studs set with agate or coral. Some
gold-plated ornaments have been found, among them a "bracelet formed
by a double-headed snake grasping between its jaws a decapitated human
head and a snake about four inches long." Ling Roth, commenting upon
the workmanship of these smaller objects, says that generally speaking
it is good, but "it is not as a rule equal to that of the large Benin
metal workings; this is no doubt due to the greater difficulty
presented by the smaller surfaces on which the artisans have had to
work."[42]

Speaking of what he calls a curious class of objects, namely, the long
armlets and leglets "so fashionable in West Africa," Ling Roth
declares them to be "elegantly finished productions and good examples
of Benin art.... They are provided with loops for hawk bills, which
turn up everywhere in unexpected places through Benin metal work." In
describing one such bracelet, which, however, is of modern make, he
says that it is "interesting as exhibiting a conventionalized
leopard's face on the top, as well as a European's face on the bottom,
likewise developing into a form of ornament ... the fertility in
design is in all of these forms manifest indeed; it is a feature in
the art of Benin natives which any of our jewelers might do well to
copy."[43]

Passing to a consideration of some of the larger forms of metal
casting, we have the following description by Ling Roth of a bronze
vase "whose ornamentation consists of four mask-like faces in high
relief, two plain and two ribbed, set alternately; above each of the
ribbed masks there is a flat spiral on which rests an ornamental
triangle on its apex. Between the heads are placed bands of very plain
guilloche, each band consisting of alternate three or four rows each,
above and below concentric circles of imitation (coral?) bead work,
all in low relief, and helping to fill in the ground. The whole
arrangement forms a combination of decidedly artistic effect. There is
no enchasing or punching of any sort, nor is there much ornamentation,
but what ornamentation there