A silver cross of the Tuareg of Niger. A record from 1972 says a father gives it to his son when he comes of age, as “the four directions of the world”.
Record, Folk and Modern are kept apart, and each one carries its source.
Dieterlen and Ligers recorded in 1972 that a Tuareg father gives the cross to his son when he comes of age. It stands for “the four directions of the world”.
To verify: Full reference for Dieterlen & Ligers (1972)
In Tuareg it is called tenaghelt, and a legend tells of it as a love token. Smiths cast it in silver by the lost-wax method. The Horniman Museum holds one (2007.182).
To verify: The love-token legend in full; The date of the Horniman cross
Shops today sell it as a sign of safety and prosperity. We found no early record of that reading; the 1972 record is about a father, a son and the four directions.
It opens with the pencil construction, then follows the record, how people used it, and the piece we make today. Every fact in it comes from the sources on this page.
