Another yard sale find

I knew it must be a musical instrument but couldn't figure out how it might be played—the strings are too thin to be plucked or bowed. It's about 20" long and the bell is 7" across. It's obviously hand-painted and nicely decorated with shells, with a rounded back made from a calabash gourd and cowskin stretched across the front. I did a reverse image search and found out it's a decorative version of a kora, a traditional West African instrument played in Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Gambia. I'd never heard one played until the amazing concert at the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center last August with Lee Carroll's C the Beat teaming up with the Senegal Project. Diely Mori Tounkara's kora playing (on a full-size instrument) was stunning, and he's carrying on a long family tradition of kora virtuosos. Here's an example: