In this connection it might be mentioned that there are some carved coconut shell in which the Negro carver often expressed his ingenuity. These represent in their carving a varied number of forms, including human beings, animals and plants. The interest in these carvings, as Roth tells us, "lies in their demonstration of the adaptability of the native to perform creditably on a material very different from ivory. Fair ingenuity is displayed in the manner in which the figures are grouped on a confined surface without overcrowding. In fact, the feature of the work is the careful distribution and general freedom of treatment. The details of the carvings are throughout in low relief, remarkably clean and neat and of a uniform depth."[22] So far no carved objects in stone, granite, marble, or the like, have come to view in the immediate Benin territory. This, of course, is natural enough when it is remembered, as has been pointed out, that there are no such materials to be found in the country. In 1911, however, Leo Frobenius discovered in his excavations of Ilife, a few hundred miles farther back in the interior, a number of carved stone objects which are interesting from several points of view. In the first place, might be considered the circumstance and position in which these objects were found. Many of these objects were dug up out of the earth at a depth of from eighteen to twenty feet, but several were found set up in tombs and isolated spots in the African forest. These forests are described by Frobenius as being sacred groves where the present-day natives worship their gods. Frobenius testifies that there were an extraordinary number and variety of these stone figures, and that they represent very different periods. Some show a coarse type of workmanship, but others represent a very superior grade of work. The following is, in the main, Frobenius's description of these objects: "When, on leaving the main road, we arrived at the first small palm plantation, a group of quite coarse little stone pillars about waist high came into view. They are angular, roundish, and at all events roughly hewn or chipped off, absolutely bare of any detail. Going forward we came to another, rather more to the left. Here there is a wilderness of weeds, a mass of roof battens and the straw of a collapsed thatch, surmounted by a few stakes and climbers amidst which rises a stone image. This is about thirty-two inches high, roughly executed and defaced. It has one chain around its neck and another hangs over an apron skirt down to the hands folded over the stomach. On its left side it has a peculiar hanger, something like the tassels of a Houssa sword."[23] In another nearby spot he describes the find of a smaller statue: