This little rascal is a small balsa wood yam mask from the southern Abelam area known as the "Wosera" or "worse area" because of the mosquitoes. Here these prolific artists and champion long yam growers decorate their prized long yams with either finely woven yam masks or more rarely small balsa wood ones like this. The light wood enables the carver to really shine by cutting elegant lines and pleasing volumes such as evidenced in this example. This yam mask is a very old one as seen by the layers of pigments and the old back where it would have been lashed to the head of a massive tuber. The piece is small, like most of the oldest ones, at 5 ½" in height. sold