Kagle

Dan · numen · Dan traditional religion; continuing · numen

Kagle is the hooked, troublemaking mask-spirit of the Dan, sometimes cast as a chimpanzee. Its angular face bears prominent, uneven teeth, and some examples carry a row of antelope horns across the forehead. In performance it carries bundles of hooked branches, hurling them at spectators to clear and warm up a dancing ground and to provoke the crowd, and it disrupts festivities with boisterous, erratic movement. Its aggressive mischief has a disciplinary edge, and the mask is also associated with instructing young men in combat, placing it among the fierce ge alongside the war spirit bugle.

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