Sorcery Box Decorated with Shell Pieces (Front)

Augury was an important activity among the indigenous people of Taiwan. People would turn to augury before hunting, sacrifices, marriages, house-building, or opening up new land for farming. This box is the kind of container used to hold the ritual implements for divination used by shamans. The box is carved out of a single piece of wood, with an open top and no lid, but instead a twine net covering. In the front, it is decorated with patterns of snakes and heads, and sometimes the back and the sides of the box were decorated as well. In some cases, they were even inlayed with shells or porcelain and painted red or black. The shamans of the Paiwan people were usually women, and when they practiced divination, they would make offerings of knives, pig bones, lard, leaves, and beads to deities, and then say the incantations. Things that are put in the sorcery box vary from tribe to tribe but only with minor differences.