This wonderful female figure is of a classic but rare type used to adorn the top of the small covered entrance to the ceremonial house where initiates crawled into to enter the sacred ancestral space. Similar to many cultures initiation is a process likened to a rebirth and entering from between the splayed legs of a female ancestor is an apt metaphor. While some of the pigments on the figure are fresh this is evidence of a recent ceremonial use and not an indication of age. For that one must look for other signs—such as the dense hardwood of its manufacture, the thin attenuated arms cut free from the torso, the pierced nasal septum and the aged surface of the reverse. The sculpture is 49 ˝" in height, dates to around 1930. sold