Anointing vessel

A short, strong snake, with its mouth open, appears at the bottom of the glass indicating that it was intended to contain medicinal ointments.

The presence of the snake, mainly the python in African art is a constant fact, regardless of ethnicity and age. It is true that the African of the savannah as of the jungle is called to live with it. It appears in most of its cosmogonies and traditions and is represented in the most varied forms and in all types of materials, whether bronze, wood or terracotta. It is often found in objects for funerary or medicinal use. The snake is one of the primordial animals of most ethnic groups. It is a bond of union between earth and heaven, between humans and the spirits of the jungle. Divinated in many cultures it is a symbol of wisdom, prudence and uprightness but at the same time it arouses fear and respect. It is for many symbols of immortality, fertility for others and also longevity, for its ability to regenerate by changing mute.

Principle of movement and life, quality of everything that is flexible, sinuous and humid. ForSenufoand other ethnicities represent the virile member and is also considered by the fortune tellers as a messenger of the spirits of the jungle. Being able to penetrate underground, the serpent is the messenger of the deceased. For its way of moving represents the flow of water from rivers. In almost all the African statuary it means the power of the healer, the fetishist or the sorcerer to cure diseases and evils.