Divination set

A prevalent representation associated with dédegué kunu, or the art of divination, is the figure of Yurugu - the mythical pale fox (Vulpes pallidus) that is a deity created by the creator god Amma, possessing a special gift - the power to foretell the future. Several myths explain why the Dogon believe in the foretelling power of the fox. One of them tells the story of a man who talked to a fox. Hostile to the animal, the man's wife ordered him to kill it. The fox told the man that if he did so, he would be punished. However, the husband listened to his wife and took a stick to the fox. The angry animal no longer wanted to talk to the man; it painted rectangular fields with its tail - a fortune-telling board - and then spoke to the man one last time: 'Come look at the words that foretell the future'. The Dogon believe that they have since practised divination from fox marks (one of the many methods of divination found in Dogon country), which is a relatively recent practice, having been practised since the second half of the 19th century. Women cannot become diviners of yurugu yaine or yurugu kunugu because, according to the myth, the woman wanted the animal dead. To divine from the footprints of a fox, one must have a good memory and the open-mindedness necessary to interpret the yurugu's answers. The candidate for yurugu yaine also goes for an apprenticeship with the older fortune-tellers, where the eldest of them teaches him to make figures - necessary when asking questions. The apprenticeship lasts 5-6 years, during which time the apprentice rarely makes the figures himself, concentrates on observing the elders and learns to interpret fox marks.

Katarzyna Findlik-Gawron