These ‘fire runner masks’, with their large, round eyes, were worn by young men who, in the dry season, ran through the villages of the Dan dressed in full body costumes in order to extinguish ‘forgotten’ stove fires while the women were at work in the fields. Their role is similar to that of a ‘fire brigade’. For this reason, these masks are called fire runner masks. The present fire runner mask, also called ‘Zakpäi’, is a very accomplished and old example of this mask type: made of hard wood, dyed black, with elegant, oval face and pointed chin, small nose, and an open mouth with lovely, protruding lips. As a border for the face, it has three relief lines of scarification marks, and above the forehead is a hole in which formerly an ‘energy giving’ iron spiral was inserted. Beneath the chin are five holes, in which earlier a beard of plant fibres was attached. A special feature on this mask are the all-around, rectangular (!) fastening holes for the mask costume on the outer rim of the object. These rectangular holes are the sign of a very old and formerly common type of Dan mask. The later Dan masks have round holes. An old piece, with very good shiny patina on the front and back (interior). No appreciable damage (only two holes on the rim above are broken through; these are old breaks). H: 22 cm; W: 13 cm. First third of the 20th century. (ME)

Provenance: Galerie Pierre Robin, Paris; Viennese Private Collection.

Lit.: 'Die Kunst der Dan' by Fischer & Himmelheber, Rietberg Museum, Zurich, fig. 42–62.