The snake loa (spirit) in Benin and Haiti, she is the companion of the most popular god, Damballah-Wedo, also a serpent. She rules fire, water, wind and the rainbow.
When she appears in a voudoun ritual, she slithers across the ground wearing a jeweled headdress that - like the treasure at the end of the rainbow - is elusive but enriches anyone who can grasp it. She is a New-World form of of the African goddess Oya.
(Text from Patricia Monaghan's The New book of Goddesses and Heroines)
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