Know how women can get pregnant after touching fertility statues in the US

New Delhi: In the Ripley Entertainment's head office in Orlando, Florida, are two five feet tall wooden statues acquired from the Baule people of Ivory Coast in Africa. Within a year of going on display, 13 office staff and visitors became pregnant, claims Ripley's website. So far, more than 2,000 women have reported that they became pregnant shortly after touching the wooden fertility statues. Many of them had been told by doctors they would never be able to conceive. Some are very serious about touching the statues, believing in their powers to help them conceive. Others want to avoid touching the fertlity statues - for the very same reason. The idea of fertility statues appear in a variety of cultures. Fertility statues serve both as a tribute to whatever fertility gods that the locals believe in, as well as often a mystical totem which helps the women of a given tribe to conceive and bear healthy children. These fertility statues may resemble people, or they can look like some particular animal that is associated with fertility in that culture. Archaeological digs have turned up a variety of these sorts of statues, from the Norse goddess Freya riding a boar to the statue of a fat woman found in the ruins of the Tarxien temples on the island of Malta. The five foot tall wooden statues were acquired from the Baule people of the Ivory Coast of West Africa and within a year of going on display at Ripley Entertainment's head office in Orlando, Florida, 13 office staff and visitors became pregnant. The statues, representing a king and queen, came from the Ivory Coast of Africa, where they were carved in the 1930s by Baule tribesmen. The king holds a sword and a mango, and the queen holds an infant. This is considered a fertility symbol in parts of Africa. According to legend, the statues are to be placed outside a bedroom door, and couples wishing to conceive should touch them as they enter the room. Following a three-year world tour in the late 90s, the company received more than 2,000 letters from women who had become pregnant shortly after touching the statues – even though many had been told by doctors they would never conceive.