in west africa the birth of twins is a rare and much revered occurence. when twins are born the mother (and families) visit the fetishman and offerings are given to the "twin fetish". these are feathers, blood, animal sacrifice, etc. in many of the small villages neal and i visited there were a plethora of "twin fetishes". when a twin dies (the mortality rate is extremely high for all babies in west africa) the mother wears a "doll" wrapped in the front of her clothes. when the mother feeds the still alive twin she also feed the "doll" that "represents" the dead twin. she does everything with the "doll" that she does for the still alive twin. neal and i had seen alot of women with dolls in the front of their clothes and were not sure why they were wearing "dolls". once the "twin fetish" was explained to us it made sense.