Dogon Wood Well Cover

Part tree stump, part comb, and entirely sure of itself.

This well cover is Dogon, from Mali, West Africa, 20th century, made of natural wood. Water is hard won in Dogon country, on and around the dry Bandiagara escarpment, so a well was never a small matter. Here a thick section of trunk has been hollowed out, its outer surface bleached pale above a darker, rougher base. Deep slots open through the rim like the teeth of a comb, and one long gash runs down the front. A knotted swelling bulges from the lower side. Twenty-eight inches high and 27 inches wide.

The slots look deliberate. The rest was the tree's idea.