Mouse box. African art

This divination box or mouse box was used by baoulés soothsayers or sorcerers of côte d'ivoire. This exotic wooden pot is divided horizontally by a floor pierced with a hole. The soothsayer placed one or more fasting mice in the lower chamber. During a consultation, he placed grains on the small metal sticks and the hungry mouse climbed and ate the grains on the move the small sticks. The soothsayer could then predict the future. Late nineteenth.