Since I had to send some griot photos to a textbook publisher, I decided to post one image to my blog. This is a color pencil drawing of a hunter griot in Mali. Much of their hunting happens in the bush, a place feared by the supersitious for the evil spirits that dwell there. Note the mirror for reflecting the evil spirits, gris gris - good luck charms, small pockets that likely hold verses of the Koran, and the one pouch that looks stitched onto his cheek. The older-style gun typically holds gunpowder that the hunter grinded. He was also holding a large tail of an animal he killed, mounted on a rope much like a giant rabbit's foot. Hunter griots may sing or play instruments such as various percussive instruments and string instruments created from gourds, one of which looks similar to a kora, a 21-stringed harp-lute.
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