among the highest forms of human
creations; and so in the exigencies of the situation the theories of
Arab or Portuguese origin were brought to the fore. The advance of
ethnological science during the last generation, the serious study of
the Benin objects in an objective sense, and finally the results of
Frobenius's Expedition, all combined, have not only weakened the
theories of a modern Arab and Portuguese origin, but have practically
destroyed them altogether.

Let us take a summary view of some of this evidence against these
theories. In the first place, there might be mentioned the changing
opinion regarding the supposed mental difference between so-called
cultured and primitive peoples. As a result of many scientific
studies, and some scientific expeditions both in Africa and Oceania,
it is now practically the belief in scientific circles that there is
no potential difference in quality of mind of the various races or of
widely differentiated cultural groups. This removes at the outset the
belief heretofore held as to the inherent limited capacity of the
Negro peoples. According to this modern point of view, then, the
objects above described _could_ have been created by native blacks of
Central Africa.

As a next step, Ling Roth has pointed out that as there is hardly a
traveler from Africa who has not recorded the art of iron smelting
among the Negro or Bantu tribes, "we may accept as a fact that the art
of smelting iron is a very old one in Africa." Not only does the
recent evidence point out that iron smelting _per se_ was an old and
widespread practice in Africa, but, in addition, reports a similar
method of metal working as discovered in the Benin country to have
been in vogue in other and widely separated parts of Africa. For
example, Bowditch[54] describes a method of casting on the Volta
River, where a wood core was used instead of sand, while Robinson[55]
states that at Kano "there are on sale swords, spears and many other
objects made of native wrought iron. The article desired is first
formed in wax and from this clay model is made into which the molten
iron can be poured."[56]

This, it would seem, reduces considerably the need for postulating
modern influence so far as the _method_ is concerned. And even if
modern influence were responsible, it could hardly have been Arab or
Portuguese, for up to date no such objects as above described have
been found among the ruins of the Islamic civilization.