Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-03
Darkest Africa Represented in Bronzes
ByHerbert Ward at the National Museum

| ture in the round, the serious work,
not glDtesque, but with a certain mas
| sive dignity. Two of these tigurines
were incorporated by Mr.. Ward in
| his design for the base of the statue,
| The Chief of the Tribe. and the same
motif has been extended by tie writer
to the screen and balustrade. Among
the numerous objects of carved wood
| in the collection may be mentioned
| the boxes, spoons, seats, masks,
drums, paddles, ceremonial staffS,
pillows, vases, dishes, etc. Curiously,
wood is treated as stone by the work
ers, is cut in the mass, and no join
ing is practiced, rejecting here again
| the primitive meter of the Kongo
native.
''Of musical instruments, placed
| lowest in the scale Of development.
| the Ward collection contains note
worthy variety. It is evident from
J this fact that music, using the word
| in its most comprehensive sense, was
an important feature of the primitive
| life of the Kongo. A typical African
| instrument is a reSonating wooden
box on which are mounted several
tongues of iron or wood of different
! lengths, producing when struck with
the fingers most bizarre music.
most advanced musical instrument
possessed by the Konso tribes, as it
produces a series of ordered sounds.
This instrument has a wooden frame
on which are laid II to Is tablets OF
hardwood of graduated length. Be-
meath each tablet is secured a sourd
resonator having a skin diaphragm
The tablets are struck with rubber
hammer and produce the European
scale, although one would anticipate
an aboriginal sequence.
'The articles of costume and adorn-
ment which to the uninitiated in
Kongoese conditions would be pre-
sumed small in number are, on the
contrary, almost as numerous and
varied as in civilized society. The
Ward collection exhibits remarkable
array of headdresSes. necklaces, neck
lets, leglets. skirts. combs, armlets,
earrings, ear and lip plugs and other
objects which disclose well develop
ed sense of esthetic among these
natives"
Before he realized his intention of
Smithsonian Institution the World
War broke out, and Mr.. Ward volun
teered his services with the British
ambulance in France. He was
wounded while carrying victims of
shell fire to IL place of safety and was
brought to Paris, where he spent the
greater part of his furlough lecturing
for the American War Relief. He
later served as an officer for the
French Red Cross.
After the armstice he went on a
mission to the Balkans, but, greatly
weakened by his wound and months
of unwearied effort, he became so Ill
that it was necessary for him to re-
turn to his home in France. August
5. 1919, he went on ito the greatest of
all adventures"
A remarkable feature of the Eng
lish sculDtorS career was his ready
transition from the jungle to the
studio. Mr.. Ward explained the case
with which he made his transition by
saying:
"When you spend five years of the
impressionable age, from II to 20,
with a people. and when you are nat
urally in sympathy with them. inter-
ested in all you see, 1t seems to me
that it is bound to dominate your life.
and this is the whole story. This
work has been done because 1 love it,
and if | have had a little talent for
the thing, and if fortune has favored
me to do exactly as / please, yet each
work has cost me pain. l have gone
through periods when I thought it
was not worth while, and the next
day 1 have felt more hopeful and
pulled out of the mess.
"Anything worth while is like that
YOU must be at timse absolutely dis
couraged and you must rescue it
afterward. The thing that goes all
right from the beginning is no good"
Men who understand have come,
and women and children. too, in large
numbers, to see the accurate por-
trayal of these forest jewellers. The
impression given by the first glance
at this group of dark bronze figures,
as one after another comes into view
in the rather dimly lighted gallery. is
that of the weird and mysterious,
with a distinct suggestion of the dra-
matte or even of the tragic, and this
impression is intensified as one catches
glimpses of the walls glistening with
confused yet beautifully arranged
array of strange implements and sin
ister-looking weapons.
AS an American journalist has said:
1.-THE sculptor has brought home the
infinite tragedy of the Kongo in these
marvellous reproductions of Central
African types which tell all who see
them Of that unknown world of print.
tives. with its mysteries, it's savagery,
its suffering and its promise