Agoyo

In certain regions of Guinea, the highest veneration was given to the Agoyo fetish, a kind of idol of good omen that was kept in the main sorcerer's cabin. Its shape was extremely strange, almost inconceivable: a carving some forty centimeters high, half man and half toad, adorned with red ribbons, the same as the inverted vessel that served as its pedestal. On his head he wore a strange headdress ending in a dart, made up of a lizard under a crescent moon, another smaller and horizontal one, a piece of a spear, feathers, snakes and more lizards, all this was placed on a table with three bowls and eighteen clay balls.

To consult this idol, it was necessary to make a sacrifice accompanied by a splendid gift to the elder witch, who had exclusive rights to this oracle; if, by pouring the balls several times into the bowls, an odd number came out, the answer was affirmative, and if not, negative.