Real teeth, of one or more African animals. We were originally told they were Lion, later Baboon. Either way you wouldn't want to meet one in the bush.
The lower part of each is the part you would see, the rest is the root.
Stuff like this, and other even more mysterious items, were sold in the "fetish" or "ju-ju" sections of the African bead markets where white people rarely ventured.
My mom, grandmother, and I of course could not resist exploring, and thanks to African respect for elders in general, and my grandmother in particular, we were welcomed and learned at least some things about unusual bead materials.
Generally the idea is that if you wear part of a powerful animal, you gain some of its power. Big teeth were so popular that a small local industry developed around faking them quite nicely. See ORB-156
Both the real and the fakes have been stashed away among my planned Dictionary of Beads sample stash for the past 20 years. Now they could be yours.
Only one set of real teeth available
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