Mouse oracle

Description:	Many African cultures use divination oracles or devices as a method of predicting future events or making important decisions. The Baule peoples of the Ivory Coast use the Gberke, or mouse oracle. Oral tradition claims that long ago mice could speak and talk with the forest spirits, which see and know all and are in contact with Baule ancient ancestors. When the Baule use the divination oracle, they might place the mouse in the bottom chamber and place corn kernels in the upper chamber. Generally, a yes or no question would be asked. If the mouse ate the corn kernels in a specified amount of time, the answer would be yes. If not, the answer would be no. This is just one example of how the oracle might be used. Other items like bird bones and sticks might be used in the oracle as well.
Source:	http://www.digitalindy.org/cdm/ref/collection/tcm/id/2030
Collection:	The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
Rights:	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/;
Copyright:	Creative Commons (CC By-SA 3.0);
Subjects:	Baule (African people) Côte dIvoire Oracles

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