The kòtín is the 'accomplished ancestor' of the Lobi, the highest status the dead can attain. When a man dies his vital principle, his thil, is first gathered into a wooden cane set in the vestibule of his house. Only after his second funeral has been completed, and after years of waiting, may a dream announce to the head of the family that this father or grandfather aspires to become a kòtín — a great ancestor entitled to an anthropomorphic image. His figure is then carved, together with that of a female counterpart, and the pair takes its place among the elder ancestors in the sacred chamber of the household, where the lineage venerates them. Standing apart from the created spirits of the cosmos, the accomplished ancestor is a once-living human raised by funerary ritual into an enduring guardian of his descendants.