African ceremonial axe......comments?

Tim Simmons · 28th August 2006, 06:22 PM

You may have something there. There was a special group of Palace Amazons that hunted elephants called the Gbeto. Apparently although not actually proven the king owned one of the tusks of every elephant taken with the option to take the rest on payment of compensation. When one thinks of the the royal set up of Amazons and Dahomey life, perhaps it may be an elephant and also a snake at the same time. I can see the eye of the elephant and the trunk. The trunk could transform into a snake. Observances of Dahomey art and society are not the most reliable and badly recorded and the system then lost after the French conquest so speculation may still have value.

katana · 28th August 2006, 07:26 PM

The photo is not too clear but ...the end of the 'trunk' appears to have the top view of a snake's head. The 'coil' seemed to me, to be a representation of a 'snake at rest'. The head of the shaft seemed snake-like with the 'trunk' being its tongue.....however I did think the eye doesn't have a reptilian look..
there is no charactristic 'slit-like' pupil..... but I have since discovered , not all snakes have this attribute.(see photos of indigenious snakes fro W. Africa)
The main concern regarding elephants is that there are IMHO 3 main characteristics regarding their heads, trunk, tusks and large ears... I see no representation of the ears.....but...

I found this which is VERY INTERESTING......

African serpents were often referred to as "Elephant's face", Master of the Forest, or Mombo-wa-Ndlopfu. These serpents were credited with speech and though they had bad breath, weren't necessarily evil. Often associated with the flesh-eating maggots of corpses, ancestral spirits and ghosts favoured their form as a disguise (Ananikian & Werner, 1925). The African dragon-serpent has a long-standing enmity with the elephant; the 30 ft long dragon-serpents, known only as "Elephant killers" often hunt elephants, sometimes lying in wait in pairs and tripping their prey with knotted tails (Byrne [ed], 1979). During creation, when the God of the Masai came to the world, he met a Dorobo tribal member, an elephant and a serpent. Therefore, the serpent and elephant share a special level of creation, which perhaps partially explains the serpent's animosity for its fellow beast (Ananikian & Werner, 1925).

This is also very relavent.....

Chameleons are widely regarded with unreasoning fear, especially in West Africa, where various beliefs associate the reptile with the Sun. In Dahomey, the chameleons are said to fetch fire from the Sun.

I've posted a photo of a Chameleon......notice the spirally curled tail.....

A little about snake worship....

http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/vao/vao03.htm

28th August 2006, 07:26 PM	#2
katana Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Kent Posts: 2,658	The photo is not too clear but ...the end of the 'trunk' appears to have the top view of a snake's head. The 'coil' seemed to me, to be a representation of a 'snake at rest'. The head of the shaft seemed snake-like with the 'trunk' being its tongue.....however I did think the eye doesn't have a reptilian look.. there is no charactristic 'slit-like' pupil..... but I have since discovered , not all snakes have this attribute.(see photos of indigenious snakes fro W. Africa) The main concern regarding elephants is that there are IMHO 3 main characteristics regarding their heads, trunk, tusks and large ears... I see no representation of the ears.....but... I found this which is VERY INTERESTING...... African serpents were often referred to as "Elephant's face", Master of the Forest, or Mombo-wa-Ndlopfu. These serpents were credited with speech and though they had bad breath, weren't necessarily evil. Often associated with the flesh-eating maggots of corpses, ancestral spirits and ghosts favoured their form as a disguise (Ananikian & Werner, 1925). The African dragon-serpent has a long-standing enmity with the elephant; the 30 ft long dragon-serpents, known only as "Elephant killers" often hunt elephants, sometimes lying in wait in pairs and tripping their prey with knotted tails (Byrne [ed], 1979). During creation, when the God of the Masai came to the world, he met a Dorobo tribal member, an elephant and a serpent. Therefore, the serpent and elephant share a special level of creation, which perhaps partially explains the serpent's animosity for its fellow beast (Ananikian & Werner, 1925). This is also very relavent..... Chameleons are widely regarded with unreasoning fear, especially in West Africa, where various beliefs associate the reptile with the Sun. In Dahomey, the chameleons are said to fetch fire from the Sun. I've posted a photo of a Chameleon......notice the spirally curled tail..... A little about snake worship.... http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/vao/vao03.htm Attached Images

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28th August 2006, 06:22 PM	#1
Tim Simmons Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: What is still UK Posts: 5,890	You may have something there. There was a special group of Palace Amazons that hunted elephants called the Gbeto. Apparently although not actually proven the king owned one of the tusks of every elephant taken with the option to take the rest on payment of compensation. When one thinks of the the royal set up of Amazons and Dahomey life, perhaps it may be an elephant and also a snake at the same time. I can see the eye of the elephant and the trunk. The trunk could transform into a snake. Observances of Dahomey art and society are not the most reliable and badly recorded and the system then lost after the French conquest so speculation may still have value.