Large calabash ·  Tanzanie, Sukuma · ID: 3035120

Description

waisted in the middle, wrapped with stripes of animal skin and a string of white glass beads, two metal bells attached, leather band for support, stopper in shape of a human head with red glass bead eyes rising from a long shaft, slightly dam., encrusted with clay, corrosion, hairline cracks;
mainly used as containers for medicines, ointments, pigments, sacred oils, and symbolic substances. Sometimes gourds with anthropomorphic stoppers were placed on top of small stools to serve as ancestor figure.