Whistle "nsiba" or charm with janus figure

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Description

wood, antelope horn,
Antelope-horn whistles with carved wooden finials, were probably used in medicinal and hunting contexts.

Söderberg notes in 1966, that antelope-horn whistles from the lower Zaire region were often associated with traditional healers who wore them as symbols of their strength and medicinal powers.

He states, that the sculptures adorning these whistles, are credited with spiritual power allowing the “nganga” to extract bullets by sucking from a wound inflicted during war or in the course of hunting".

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Comparing literature

Brincard, Marie-Therese, Sounding forms, New York 1989, p. 165, ill.128 ff.

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