Baoulé divination box from Côte d'Ivoire. Traditional and old object, over 40 years.
This type of box also bears the name "Oracle to mouse". This wood or terracotta object was intended for divination, and accompanied the soothsayers during their travels.
Technically, it is a pot whose interior is divided horizontally by a floor pierced with an orifice.
The soothsayer placed one or more fasting mice in the lower room, and during a consultation, he had in the top of the sticks, pork-epic thorns, turtle scales, and a little food, in a carefully studied order.
Once the pot closed, the soothsayer recited incantations. The hungry mouse immediately climbed the upper part to eat food.
It involuntarily changed the layout of the objects that the Devin then was responsible for deciphering and interpreting.