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.

28th August 2006, 06:22 PM	#7
Tim Simmons Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: What is still UK Posts: 5,844	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.