Description [ObjReserve02M]description 13600. End anthropomorphic head, below band with cowry body. Then checkerboard hatched fields, slot for rattle body. Bottom 4-fold double conical set off. Purchase price 75.- "The one .. surmounted by a human head, represents generalized ancestors and is for a commoner's paternal ancestral altar (Text zu pl. 58) The rattle staff is both a means of communication with the spirit world, achieved when the staff is struck upon the ground, and a staff of authority, to be wielded only by the properly designated person. In this way it is related to a variety of royal staffs of authority. ... Ideally, these cult staffs are obtained from the urban carvers' guild, igbesanmwan, who are supposed to have a monopoly on their production, but in actuality local village age-grade members often produce them when needed for their own cults. Most village cult shrines consist of these rattle staffs, pots with magical ingredients and pieces of kaolin chalk. (56f) The commoner's paternal ancestral altar is a rectangular platform. Resting upon the wall are wooden staffs uhurhe, with a human head carved on top of each of them. If any predecessor of the present senior son had a title or was a well-known priest, his ceremonial sword, ada, might be found among the staffs. At least one rectangular bell is placed towards the fron, where it can be easily rung to announce the commencement of a service. At the very fron the presence of a celt or "thunderstone" siginifies the sudden and dreadful power of Ogiuwu, the god of death." (60) LIT Ben Amos: The Art of Benin. London 1980, p. 56ff