Altar, Guessor

Statue from the island of Nalu. Represents a soothsayer and healer with a great dominion over snakes. It is a sacred statue, an iran, used as an altar in ritual cults. On the back of the character there is a short-sized animal, with snake body and legs that is devouring another imaginary animal with dragon figure and crest on the head that in turn rests on the head of the fortune teller. This figure of dragon or imaginary reptile or snake with crets is recurrent in the statuary bidjogo. The soothsayer carries on his shoulders two thick snakes with crests that curl at the bottom forming a kind of ledge. His waist, on the front, carries the horn with the magic substances and on one side the sacrificial knife. Dark wood, heavy and hard.