Twin figures, WA508368

- Twins (flani) are walking their dog. They are told to be proud, because they are so beautiful. These particular puppets are painted pink, not for any special reason, probably just because the paint colour was available or fashionable.

- Beautiful woman (yayoroba): she is so beautiful, she must be loved, but she is told not to give her heart away too easily. Beautiful woman of the fishermen: she is given a ride to the market on a pirogue because she is so beautiful.

	Hunters (colonial figures), WA508369

- Colonial figures recall the colonial era, the anciens militaires who were powerful and instilled fear. They were compared to lions, the kings of the bush.

- Antelope: A proud animal, it always moves with and remains with its group.

- Cow: generous, it accepts the calf of another and feeds it, and also gives milk to people.

- Ram: this puppet reminds that the strongest ram takes the ewes.

	Bird figures, WA508367

- Birds (kalaho): there are three in this collection, the large, the red and the black. Birds feed their young, even if they dont have milk. The large bird is called boulomba, the Great Bird of Mali. It has wings but is too big to fly. It does not represent a real bird, it is symbolic. The white kalaho eats snakes, the lesson is that the small can conquer the large, just as a small bird can conquer the snake which is powerful.

- Chameleon is slow but it changes colour and knows how to feed itself. The lesson of this animal is that one should go slowly in life, but surely.

- Crocodile: represents a chief who did not have children. He changed himself into a crocodile and lay in wait at the water, where he ate all the women who came down to wash. One day a man took a wife, but was determined that she too would not be taken by the crocodile. He went down to the water with her, but hid, and when the crocodile tried to take her he killed the crocodile. That day the chief of the village died as well.

- Hyena (Namau): lives in burrows under the ground and kills many animals. It is like the devil in that it can change its form and travel like a spirit.

(Based on the animals made and performed in Segou, 1990, source: Michel deCombes, 1999)