f the
Bakuba hand pointing toward a near Egyptian residence a strong one. Now
turn to your Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. X, ninth edition, with
American revisions and additions, to the article on "Glass," page 647.
Near the bottom of the second column on that page we read: "The
Phoenicians probably derived this knowledge of the art (of glass making)
from Egypt. * * * It seems probable that the earliest products of the
industry of Phoenicia in the art of glass making are the colored beads
which have been found in almost all parts of Europe, in India, and other
parts of Asia, and in _Africa_. The "aggry" beads so much valued by the
_Ashantees and other natives_ of that part of Africa which lies near the
Gold Coast, have _probably_ the same origin. * * * Their wide dispersion
may be referred with much probability to their having been objects of
barter between the Phoenician merchants and the barbarous inhabitants of
the various countries with which they traded." Here are evidences, then,
that the African in his prehistoric days traded with somebody who
bartered in beads of Phoenician or Egyptian make. I say Egyptian or
Phoenician because if the Phoenicians got this art from the Egyptians I
think it would be very difficult for those who lived thousands of years
afterward to be sure in which country a specific bead was made, the art
as practiced by one country being a kind of copy of the art as practiced
in the other country. With the historic record that the Phoenicians were
the great traders of the Ancient World our writers attributed the
carrying of the beads into Africa, among the natives, to the
Phoenicians. Without questioning these time-honored conclusions, we do
know that Egyptian caravans still make journeys into the interior of
Africa for the purpose of trade. Shall we think this trading practice on
the part of Egypt in Africa one of recent origin or probably one that
runs back through the centuries? I see no reason for believing this
trading custom to be other than an ancient one. If the ancient Egyptians
traded with the surrounding Africans and these Africans gradually
migrated South, as is stated in the Bakuba tradition, the whole matter
of how all kinds of animals got mixed into Negro Folk Rhymes by custom
becomes clear. It also will explain how animal worship got scattered
throughout Africa, for it is the unbroken history of the world that
traders of a race superior in attainment always somehow manage to carry