This female eshu displays a few features that are typical for this kind of figure. The mop of hair merges into a long plait adorned with small medicine calabashes. The plait culminates in a second face, which is indicated by two eyes. The figure is holding calabashes in her hands. The proffering of the breasts in the hands is a traditional gesture of reverence. Black and white are the two typical colours associated with eshu figures. They indicate his dual, bipolar, capricious character and are expressed in the blackness of the figure, and in the three white cowrie strips, dyed green with indigo and held in place with a brown leather strap. The cowries also refer to eshu's position as the master of trading at the market and the transactions carried out there using money (cowries). Each cheek has been engraved with four horizontal and, above them, three vertical lancet-like ethnic (tribal) identification marks (abaja variation). There are three more vertical marks (pepe) above the root of the nose, as well as a vertical notch on the chin. The narrow basal disc suggests that this eshu figure is more likely to be the figural attachment of a wooden dancing staff (ogo elegba/eshu), which has subsequently been removed, rather than an independent figure. There are scorch marks on the base.Who is eshu? His oriki, "praise poem" says: "When he is angry, he strikes a stone until it bleeds ... Eshu confuses the young woman: she steals cowries from the shrine and ... swears she didn't know it was stealing. Eshu confuses the queen's mind, she casts off her clothes and exclaims: Eshu, stop confusing me! ... He throws a stone today that hits yesterday. When he is lying down, his head bangs against the roof. When he stands up, he can't see into the cauldron on the fire. Eshu twists right into wrong, wrong into right." (adapted from Stephan von Bonin 1979:93). Author: Michael Schönhuth, Translation: Timothy Connell