Pair of "eshu" dance wands · Nigeria, Yoruba · ID: 3045119
Description
wood, leather, cowry shells, miniature glass beads,
These figures are worn round the neck of female worshippers of “eshu” (the “trickster” god) so that they hang upside down over the breasts of the devotee and are more or less hidden among the strands of cowries.
The fact that “eshu hides behind cowries”, as the Yoruba say, indicates that the trickster is present in all money transactions, especially on the market, where strangers come into contact with each other and quarrels may easily arise.
The object Pair of “eshu” dance wands with the object ID 3045119 was last part of the auction 91 Tribal Art Auction at March 9, 2019 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 252 achieved a sales price of EUR 500.
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Comparing literature
Witte, Hans, Ifa and Esu, Soest-Holland 1984, p. 109