Charm

37-22-256

From: Sierra Leone | Sherbro Island

Curatorial Section: African

Object Number 37-22-256
Current Location Collections Storage
Culture Sherbro
Provenience Sierra Leone | Sherbro Island
Section African
Materials Stone
Description

A pebble resembling in shape a human head and shoulders. One of a class of familiars acquired in the same way as a Wali. It must be "fed" with rice flour and goat's fat and washed every new moon in a concoction of leaves of kemba and of a plant called red fowl's foot. Kamatos appear to the people they favour in human form: as a man to a woman, as a woman to a man. Kai Tshali employed his Kamato to help him to be "proper carpenter".

Length 5 cm
Credit Line Expedition to Sierra Leone, West Africa; Henry Usher Hall, 1937
Other Number 278 - Collector Number

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