Shilluk tobacco pipe
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1939.7.53 .1 .2 .3
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Upper Nile Malakal
Cultural Group:
Shilluk
Date Made:
By 1939
Materials:
Pottery , Bamboo Plant , Animal Hide Skin , Gourd Plant , Plant Fibre , Plant Seed , Tobacco Plant Pigment
Process:
Handbuilt , Fire-Hardened , Stitched , Twisted , Hollowed , Perforated Wound Decorated Slipped Burnished Incised Impressed Inlaid
Dimensions:
Mouthpiece: L = 132, neck diam = 24, body diam = 55 mm. Pipe shaft body L = 452, max diam = 25.1; hide sheath L = 69; carrying cord diam = 2, L handle = 345 mm. L pipe bowl = 196, mouth = 37 by 22; diam stem = 32, max W body = 54.2 mm; total length comple
Weight:
430 g
Local Name:
?dak
Other Owners:
Armine Charles Almroth Wright
Field Collector:
?Armine Charles Almroth Wright
PRM Source:
Armine Charles Almroth Wright
Acquired:
Donated July 1939
Collected Date:
By 1939
Description:
Composite tobacco pipe consisting of a gourd and hide mouthpiece [.3], a bamboo shaft with carrying loop attached [.2] and a pottery pipe bowl with hide sheath at top [.1]; only the mouthpiece is currently detachable.
This consists of 2 parts fitted closely together.
The inner section is made from a small orange gourd (Pantone 7511C) with a narrow mouth on a short neck, flaring out to a globular body with the convex shoulder visible; a small hole has been chipped into the centre of its underside.
This has been fitted into an outer casing made of hardened animal hide, cut from a rectangular strip and wrapped around the lower part of the gourd and upper part of the shaft, with a seam running down one side that has been sewn together using a narrow strip of hide.
The casing appears to have been shrunken in place, and matches the shape of the body underneath very closely; the lower part narrows and has been folded as well as shrunken to create a cylindrical socket that slips over the shaft top.
The hide is currently dark brown in colour (Pantone 7519C) with some lengths of buff coloured hair still attached to the outer surface.
The mouthpiece currently contains a number of loose, pale yellow seeds, and still carries a strong scent of tobacco.
It has a weight of 14.2 grams, is 132 mm long, has a neck diameter of 24 mm and a body diameter of 55 mm.
The body of the pipe is made from a short length of hollowed out yellow bamboo, with 3 segments visible (Pantone 7510C), 452 mm long and with a maximum diameter of 25.1 mm. The interior is thick and fibrous, and a wad of leaves are visible packed into the upper end when the mouthpiece is removed. The lower end of this has been fitted with a short sheath of animal hide, covered with pale buff coloured hair (Pantone 7401C); this is made from a rectangular strip, folded around the shaft and overstitched along the join using a length of flat hide thong. This covers the junction of pipe stem and bowl, and has been shrunken to fit tightly over the join, and is 69 mm long. It is held in place by a carrying loop made of twisted 2 ply yellow plant fibre (Pantone 7509C), that passes through a fibre loop at the top of the sheath, with the two ends running up one side of the shaft as a double stranded handle, then being wound 4 times around the upper shaft and tied in place. This cord has a diameter of 2 mm and has a handle 345 mm in length.
The base of the pipe consists of a separate ceramic pipe bowl, the stem of which fits inside the hide sheath. This has been hand made from a soft fired moderately well levigated clay with some tiny mica inclusions, slipped and fired a dark reddish brown colour (Pantone 476C). This has a cylindrical stem, with part of what was probably a solid knob pipe rest at the base, but which has broken away on one side. The body splays out from one side of this at an acute angle to the stem, and has been shaped in the form of an animal figure, probably a hyena. This has a rounded head with 2 upright triangular ears bearing circular holes through their centres, 2 circular cut-out eyes, a small snub nose with 2 impressed nostrils in its base, and a wide, oval mouth into which the tobacco would be put. A ridge runs up across the head from the nose, becoming a prominent crest that continues down the back of the neck. The body below swells out slightly; no limbs or other details are shown. The surface has been decorated with a series of incised and impressed lines, filled with a white chalky substance, leaving plain, highly burnished bands between. A broad band around the top of the pipe stem and the entire head of the animal have been covered with irregular rows of impressed dots, giving the surface a textured appearance. In some areas over the head, the pigment has completely covered the surface in a thick mass. The rest of the body has been divided up by a series of narrow bands, made of 2 incised lines framing a single row of crescent-shaped impressions within, all similarly inlaid with white. There are 2 such bands around the pipe stem, just above the animal's head, and a further 2 bands below, with 2 vertical parallel bands framing the front and back part of its body, and a series of parallel oblique bands running down the sides - 3 on the left, 4 on the right. The base of the pipe rest was covered with a thicker band of incised and inlaid crosshatching.
The pipe is 196 mm long, including the area covered by the sheath. The mouth measures 37 by 22 mm across; the stem has a diameter of 32 mm and the body a maximum width of 54.2 mm. Together the pipe bowl and stem weigh 415.5 grams; as a whole, the completely assembled pipe weighs 430 grams and has a total length of 730 mm. The object is nearly complete; the tip of one ear and the base pipe rest are both partially broken away and missing.
Obtained by Armine Charles Almroth Wright at Malakal and donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in July 1939.
Shilluk commoners call the tobacco pipe dak , while its royal name is labo, meaning earth or mud. Tobacco is called athabo, or omaro by royalty, signifying its colour. The Shilluk use 2 types of dak – the dangduong and the dangthen. The former is kept within the family enclosure; the latter is more commonly used in public. The two types are not structurally different. They are made up of a pipe bowl (the base is known as tyel dak) , attached to a hollow stem ( obec dak – usually made from a plant known as obec ) with a skin sheath ( apyeth dak ), and at the top, the mouthpiece is made of skin, usually cow's tail ( apyeth agwayo ), fitted around a gourd plant ( agwayo ). A filtering material ( anywön ) is put into the latter through a hole in its base; this is made from a plant known as thitho, treated in a special way that makes the fibres very soft. This is changed when it becomes thick and bitter with nicotine.
A wire instrument called a godi is used to remove bad anywön . When a new filter has been put into a pipe, it is often smoked by a number of people in an event known as Käki 'dak , where the beauty of a pipe can be shown off. The pipe in question is often decorated with beads and cuttings from the tails of newly born sheep for the occasion. Many pipes decorated with lion or human heads and other designs were produced by a Shilluk school teacher and sculptor called Mariano Gwado Ayoker during the early 1930's; he sold many of these and his wooden sculptures to the the Verona Fathers, and later the Mill Hill Fathers in Tonga and Malakal; he died in 1975. One of his lion pipes is currently in the British Museum (Kunijwok Gwado Ayoker of Wolfson College, Oxford, circa 1980's, from an unpublished paper titled "Reflections on Cultural Artifacts and History: the Case of a Shilluk Pipe", pp 2-5, 11-13, figs 1, 3; the museum has a copy of this paper on file).
Rachael Sparks 25/9/2005.
The body of the pipe is made from a short length of hollowed out yellow bamboo, with 3 segments visible (Pantone 7510C), 452 mm long and with a maximum diameter of 25.1 mm. The interior is thick and fibrous, and a wad of leaves are visible packed into the upper end when the mouthpiece is removed. The lower end of this has been fitted with a short sheath of animal hide, covered with pale buff coloured hair (Pantone 7401C); this is made from a rectangular strip, folded around the shaft and overstitched along the join using a length of flat hide thong. This covers the junction of pipe stem and bowl, and has been shrunken to fit tightly over the join, and is 69 mm long. It is held in place by a carrying loop made of twisted 2 ply yellow plant fibre (Pantone 7509C), that passes through a fibre loop at the top of the sheath, with the two ends running up one side of the shaft as a double stranded handle, then being wound 4 times around the upper shaft and tied in place. This cord has a diameter of 2 mm and has a handle 345 mm in length.
The base of the pipe consists of a separate ceramic pipe bowl, the stem of which fits inside the hide sheath. This has been hand made from a soft fired moderately well levigated clay with some tiny mica inclusions, slipped and fired a dark reddish brown colour (Pantone 476C). This has a cylindrical stem, with part of what was probably a solid knob pipe rest at the base, but which has broken away on one side. The body splays out from one side of this at an acute angle to the stem, and has been shaped in the form of an animal figure, probably a hyena. This has a rounded head with 2 upright triangular ears bearing circular holes through their centres, 2 circular cut-out eyes, a small snub nose with 2 impressed nostrils in its base, and a wide, oval mouth into which the tobacco would be put. A ridge runs up across the head from the nose, becoming a prominent crest that continues down the back of the neck. The body below swells out slightly; no limbs or other details are shown. The surface has been decorated with a series of incised and impressed lines, filled with a white chalky substance, leaving plain, highly burnished bands between. A broad band around the top of the pipe stem and the entire head of the animal have been covered with irregular rows of impressed dots, giving the surface a textured appearance. In some areas over the head, the pigment has completely covered the surface in a thick mass. The rest of the body has been divided up by a series of narrow bands, made of 2 incised lines framing a single row of crescent-shaped impressions within, all similarly inlaid with white. There are 2 such bands around the pipe stem, just above the animal's head, and a further 2 bands below, with 2 vertical parallel bands framing the front and back part of its body, and a series of parallel oblique bands running down the sides - 3 on the left, 4 on the right. The base of the pipe rest was covered with a thicker band of incised and inlaid crosshatching.
The pipe is 196 mm long, including the area covered by the sheath. The mouth measures 37 by 22 mm across; the stem has a diameter of 32 mm and the body a maximum width of 54.2 mm. Together the pipe bowl and stem weigh 415.5 grams; as a whole, the completely assembled pipe weighs 430 grams and has a total length of 730 mm. The object is nearly complete; the tip of one ear and the base pipe rest are both partially broken away and missing.
Obtained by Armine Charles Almroth Wright at Malakal and donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in July 1939.
Shilluk commoners call the tobacco pipe dak , while its royal name is labo, meaning earth or mud. Tobacco is called athabo, or omaro by royalty, signifying its colour. The Shilluk use 2 types of dak – the dangduong and the dangthen. The former is kept within the family enclosure; the latter is more commonly used in public. The two types are not structurally different. They are made up of a pipe bowl (the base is known as tyel dak) , attached to a hollow stem ( obec dak – usually made from a plant known as obec ) with a skin sheath ( apyeth dak ), and at the top, the mouthpiece is made of skin, usually cow's tail ( apyeth agwayo ), fitted around a gourd plant ( agwayo ). A filtering material ( anywön ) is put into the latter through a hole in its base; this is made from a plant known as thitho, treated in a special way that makes the fibres very soft. This is changed when it becomes thick and bitter with nicotine.
A wire instrument called a godi is used to remove bad anywön . When a new filter has been put into a pipe, it is often smoked by a number of people in an event known as Käki 'dak , where the beauty of a pipe can be shown off. The pipe in question is often decorated with beads and cuttings from the tails of newly born sheep for the occasion. Many pipes decorated with lion or human heads and other designs were produced by a Shilluk school teacher and sculptor called Mariano Gwado Ayoker during the early 1930's; he sold many of these and his wooden sculptures to the the Verona Fathers, and later the Mill Hill Fathers in Tonga and Malakal; he died in 1975. One of his lion pipes is currently in the British Museum (Kunijwok Gwado Ayoker of Wolfson College, Oxford, circa 1980's, from an unpublished paper titled "Reflections on Cultural Artifacts and History: the Case of a Shilluk Pipe", pp 2-5, 11-13, figs 1, 3; the museum has a copy of this paper on file).
Rachael Sparks 25/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
244] -
A.C.A.
WRIGHT
, ESQ.
...
Granville Park, S.E.13.
[p.
258] July 1939.7.53 - SHILLUK pipe, MALAKAL, WHITE NILE, SUDAN, Pipe 2’ 2” long.
Bowl, brown pottery animal’s head with white decoration, attached to wooden stem by a piece of hide with hair; mouthpiece a gourd, attached to handle by sewn leather band.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 23/7/2004].
Written on object - SHILLUK PIPE. MALEK[...] WHITE NILE SUDAN. d.d. A.C.A. Wright [faded in places; RTS 23/11/2004].
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 23/7/2004].
Written on object - SHILLUK PIPE. MALEK[...] WHITE NILE SUDAN. d.d. A.C.A. Wright [faded in places; RTS 23/11/2004].
