The worlds smallest elephants??

[Ivybridge]

I've had these since I was a little kid, my neighbor traveled the world and gave me them one day. I have 2 but the photo is only showing one. I think it's some sort of a pod with an ivory (?) lid in which all these teeny carved ivory (?) elephants go into.
Would anyone know anything about these? Where they may of come from and what the purpose of them are?

Thanks!
Angel

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[wvwildman]

very cool

 

[taz42o]

Looks like vegetable ivory/ tagua nut.

Tagua Nut Carvings

 

[DLesley]

I had one of these as a child. It's called a Ratta Bead and comes from India. I got mine from the World Explorer Club which was a explorer club for students. Each month, I would get a newsletter and package from them with a different craft item from around the world.

 

[Red-Coat]

Just tidying up some blasts from the past (including some very ancient ones), largely for the benefit of anyone searching the site for information.

Cool.

I have one exactly like that with the same tiny elephants, inherited from the Indian side my wife’s family. Her father was from Kerala, where these seeds are known as Manjadi/Manjadikuru.

I’ve never heard the term ‘Ratta bead’ although there are a whole host of different names for them in various countries. They’re the seeds of the leguminous tree Adenanthera pavonine which commonly grows throughout the tropics, is abundant in the Kerala region of India, and has also been introduced to the US (mainly Florida). In the US they’re usually called Circassian seeds. The seeds themselves are edible, used in traditional medicines in India and, because they show little deviation in weight, were used as a unit of weight in olden times… especially for gold.

Those filled with tiny elephants carved from the hard endosperm of the seed are good luck charms, popularly referred to as “magical seeds” or “red lucky seeds”.