Figs. 66 to 72.--The historic mace of office of Duboar, late King of
Benin; 5 feet 4 inches long, and made of brass. This was found by
an officer of the expedition in the state apartment of the palaver
house, and was evidently left behind by the king's people on account
of its heavy weight, in their hurried exodus from Benin city; the
king is said to have since recognized this staff, and stated that it
had been handed down for many hundreds of years from king to king.
It has the representation of "Overami," or reigning monarch, on the
summit, dressed in the usual manner of Benin warriors. He is standing
on an elephant which has a proboscis terminating in a human hand. This
peculiarity is represented very often in the bronze antiquities of the
Benin country, and especially on the carved tusk, Figs. 167 and 168,
Plate XXVI, and must probably represent some great fetish; the present
race, on enquiries being made, could not elucidate this matter, so its
history must date back many ages. This elephant is in turn supported
by the usual two royal leopards. The monarch holds in his right hand
his chief ju-ju, which never leaves him night or day; in his left
hand he holds a neolithic or stone axe head, edge upwards, which are
looked up to by the natives even now with great awe and superstition.
The interior of the upper part of the mace is hollow, having a piece
of metal inside, formed like a long crotal, and was used as a bell
to keep order. The broad leaf-shaped swords and the execution swords
are depicted in several places over the mace. It is ornamented with
guilloche pattern of two and three bands with intervening pellets.
Part of the mace is ornamented in imitation of twine binding. Near the
foot of the staff is the figure of another elephant with proboscis
terminating in a human hand, holding a plant like a prickly-pear.
Beneath the elephant are two human figures, with Maltese crosses on
breasts, axes in left hands, and sticks in right. Below this are two
axes hafted in serpents' heads, which have human hands in their mouths
and sinuous bodies. Crocodile, head downwards, and two interlaced
mud-fish.