Shilluk tobacco pipe
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1965.12.118 .1 .2
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan?] [White Nile]
Cultural Group:
Shilluk
Date Made:
By 1923
Materials:
Gourd Plant , Animal Hide Skin , Animal Tail , Wood Plant , Bast Fibre Bark Plant? , Plant Fibre , Pottery Pigment
Process:
Carved , Hollowed , Perforated , Socketed , Stitched , Handbuilt Decorated Slipped Burnished Incised Impressed Inlaid Fire-Hardened
Dimensions:
Total L = 735; mouthpiece L = 174, max. daim = 70, diam neck = 26.4, mouth opening at top = 7 mm; pipe shaft diam = 26; hide sheath L = 80; pipe bowl L = 200, diam stem = 31.4, diam base knob = 45, W head = 62.1, W body = 53, mouth opening = 49 by 19 mm [
Weight:
531 g
Local Name:
?dak
Other Owners:
Collected by Edward John Russell in 1923; donated to PRM by his son, Edward Walter Russell in 1965.
Field Collector:
Edward John Russell
PRM Source:
Edward Walter Russell
Acquired:
Donated December 1965 [see notes].
Collected Date:
1923
Description:
Composite tobacco pipe consisting of a gourd and hide mouthpiece on a wooden shaft [.2] and a pottery pipe bowl with hide sheath at tip [.1]; at the moment, these parts are firmly wedged together and can not be easily separated.
The mouthpiece consists of 2 parts fitted closely together.
The inner section is made from a small pale yellow gourd (Pantone 7401C-7402C) with narrow mouth on a narrow cylindrical neck that flares out at its base into an ovoid body with sloping shoulder.
This has been fitted into an outer casing made from a section of animal tail, stretched to cover the lower half of the gourd and then folded and shrunken into a narrower cylinder that fits as a socket over the top of the wooden stem.
The hide is currently dark brown in colour (Pantone 438C) with some lengths of buff coloured hair still attached to the outer surface.
There is a faint smell of tobacco around the top of the mouthpiece.
The body has been carved from a length of yellowish brown wood (Pantone 729C) with the bark removed; this is round in section, and the interior has presumably been hollowed out. 2 pairs of crude holes have been bored through the top and bottom part of this shaft, although their function is not clear. 2 loops of European cotton yarn string have been tied around the shaft; this could be part of a modern mounting rather than original. The lower end of the shaft has been fitted with a short sheath of animal hide, covered with buff to reddish brown hair (Pantone 7505C); this is made from a rectangular strip that has been folded around the shaft and stitched down the joining sides using a flat length of yellow plant fibre or bast (Pantone 7508C); these stitches cross one another and make a thick plaited band that runs down this seam. This sheath covers the junction of pipe bowl and shaft.
The base of the pipe consists of a separate pottery pipe bowl, the stem of which fits inside the hide sheath to rest up against the base of the wooden body. This has been hand made from a soft, moderately well levigated clay with tiny mica inclusions, fired darkish gray at core and reddish brown at surfaces. The exterior has been covered in a reddish brown slip (Pantone 476C). This has a cylindrical stem that swells out then continues into a splaying solid pipe rest at the base, with a slightly convex underside. The body of the bowl extends out from one side of this at right angles to the top of the stem, and has been shaped in the form of an animal figure, probably a hyena. This has a broad oval head with 2 semicircular ears with concave interiors applied to the top, two neatly bored circular cut-out eyes, and a ridge that runs from the base of the neck up and over the head to just above the mouth, where it ends in 2 small depressions marking the nostrils. The mouth below is wide and lentoid-shaped; this is where the tobacco would be put. This head sits on a short neck, which swells out to the body below; 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 pigment and arranged in bands, leaving plain, highly burnished areas between for contrast. Only the underside of the pipe rest is not finished in this way. These consist of a band of crosses, or crosshatching around the top of the pipe stem, partially obscured by the hide sheath; a band filled with 3 horizontal rows of impressed and inlaid crescents around the pipe rest base, and a series of 5 vertical columns filled with crescentic impressions and framed by vertical lines on either side, covering most of the animal's body. Similar bands, made of double rows of crescents, run down the front flanks of the animal, and the head and area under the throat are filled with multiple rows of this motif, with lines that frame its edges meeting in a v-shape at the base of the throat. These crescents also run along the crest, down the nose, and in a circle around each eye.
The object is probably complete, although lacking the usual carrying loop; however the pipe bowl has been broken and repaired at some stage, with damage to the pipe stem and face, where a few surface chips are missing. Some of the decoration appears to be without inlaid pigment. It has a total weight of 531 grams, and is 735 mm long. The mouthpiece is 174 mm long, has a maximum diameter of 70 mm and a neck diameter of 26.4 mm, while its top opening is 7 mm wide. The pipe shaft has a diameter of 26 mm. The hide sheath at its base is 80 mm long, and the pipe bowl is 200 mm long (including the section covered by the sheath), with a stem diameter of 31.4 mm and a base diameter of 45 mm; the head is 62.1 mm wide and the body has a maximum width of 53 mm, while the mouth measures 49 by 19 mm across.
Collected by Edward John Russell in 1923; donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1965 by his son, Edward Walter Russell. It is said to come from the ‘White Nile’. It is not clear whether this refers to the actual river, or the general province, although association with the Shilluk might indicate the former.
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.
Rachael Sparks 30/9/2005.
The body has been carved from a length of yellowish brown wood (Pantone 729C) with the bark removed; this is round in section, and the interior has presumably been hollowed out. 2 pairs of crude holes have been bored through the top and bottom part of this shaft, although their function is not clear. 2 loops of European cotton yarn string have been tied around the shaft; this could be part of a modern mounting rather than original. The lower end of the shaft has been fitted with a short sheath of animal hide, covered with buff to reddish brown hair (Pantone 7505C); this is made from a rectangular strip that has been folded around the shaft and stitched down the joining sides using a flat length of yellow plant fibre or bast (Pantone 7508C); these stitches cross one another and make a thick plaited band that runs down this seam. This sheath covers the junction of pipe bowl and shaft.
The base of the pipe consists of a separate pottery pipe bowl, the stem of which fits inside the hide sheath to rest up against the base of the wooden body. This has been hand made from a soft, moderately well levigated clay with tiny mica inclusions, fired darkish gray at core and reddish brown at surfaces. The exterior has been covered in a reddish brown slip (Pantone 476C). This has a cylindrical stem that swells out then continues into a splaying solid pipe rest at the base, with a slightly convex underside. The body of the bowl extends out from one side of this at right angles to the top of the stem, and has been shaped in the form of an animal figure, probably a hyena. This has a broad oval head with 2 semicircular ears with concave interiors applied to the top, two neatly bored circular cut-out eyes, and a ridge that runs from the base of the neck up and over the head to just above the mouth, where it ends in 2 small depressions marking the nostrils. The mouth below is wide and lentoid-shaped; this is where the tobacco would be put. This head sits on a short neck, which swells out to the body below; 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 pigment and arranged in bands, leaving plain, highly burnished areas between for contrast. Only the underside of the pipe rest is not finished in this way. These consist of a band of crosses, or crosshatching around the top of the pipe stem, partially obscured by the hide sheath; a band filled with 3 horizontal rows of impressed and inlaid crescents around the pipe rest base, and a series of 5 vertical columns filled with crescentic impressions and framed by vertical lines on either side, covering most of the animal's body. Similar bands, made of double rows of crescents, run down the front flanks of the animal, and the head and area under the throat are filled with multiple rows of this motif, with lines that frame its edges meeting in a v-shape at the base of the throat. These crescents also run along the crest, down the nose, and in a circle around each eye.
The object is probably complete, although lacking the usual carrying loop; however the pipe bowl has been broken and repaired at some stage, with damage to the pipe stem and face, where a few surface chips are missing. Some of the decoration appears to be without inlaid pigment. It has a total weight of 531 grams, and is 735 mm long. The mouthpiece is 174 mm long, has a maximum diameter of 70 mm and a neck diameter of 26.4 mm, while its top opening is 7 mm wide. The pipe shaft has a diameter of 26 mm. The hide sheath at its base is 80 mm long, and the pipe bowl is 200 mm long (including the section covered by the sheath), with a stem diameter of 31.4 mm and a base diameter of 45 mm; the head is 62.1 mm wide and the body has a maximum width of 53 mm, while the mouth measures 49 by 19 mm across.
Collected by Edward John Russell in 1923; donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1965 by his son, Edward Walter Russell. It is said to come from the ‘White Nile’. It is not clear whether this refers to the actual river, or the general province, although association with the Shilluk might indicate the former.
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.
Rachael Sparks 30/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
80] - E.W.
RUSSELL, Esq., ...
EMMER GREEN, READING.
BERKS.
Collected by donor’s father, Sir John Russell, in 1923.
1965.12.118.
SUDAN, WHITE NILE, SHILLUK TRIBE.
Large tobacco pipe, brown pottery bowl shaped as animal’s head, with open mouth & round pierced eyes.
Decorated with incised lines filled in with white.
Band of brown hide at junction of bowl with long wooden stem.
Mouthpiece made of a small white gourd, set in a wooden cup.
Total length 73.7cm (c.f.
1939.7.53).
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 23/7/2004].
Related Documents File - RDF 1965.12.118-123 contains a letter from Edward Walter Russell to 'the curator' of PRM, dated 14th June [no year], in which he offers some objects to the museum, with the information: "My father, Sir John Russell, collected a certain number of household equipment from I believe Upper Nile tribes in the Sudan in 1923. I don’t know the exact provenance of any of the items, nor can I guarantee they all came from that part of the Sudan. I suppose there are about 2-3 dozen items". A reply from Beatrice Blackwood, dated 15th June 1965, expresses interest; a postcard from his wife, Margaret Russell, dated 16th June and postdated 17th June 1965, then makes arrangements to bring the objects to the museum on June 21st [RTS 23/12/2003].
?Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - 21/6/65 Russell [circular sticker, stuck to shaft of object; RTS 17/12/2004].
Written on object - SUDAN, SHILLUK TRIBE, coll. in 1923. d.d. E.W. Russell [RTS 17/12/2004].
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 23/7/2004].
Related Documents File - RDF 1965.12.118-123 contains a letter from Edward Walter Russell to 'the curator' of PRM, dated 14th June [no year], in which he offers some objects to the museum, with the information: "My father, Sir John Russell, collected a certain number of household equipment from I believe Upper Nile tribes in the Sudan in 1923. I don’t know the exact provenance of any of the items, nor can I guarantee they all came from that part of the Sudan. I suppose there are about 2-3 dozen items". A reply from Beatrice Blackwood, dated 15th June 1965, expresses interest; a postcard from his wife, Margaret Russell, dated 16th June and postdated 17th June 1965, then makes arrangements to bring the objects to the museum on June 21st [RTS 23/12/2003].
?Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - 21/6/65 Russell [circular sticker, stuck to shaft of object; RTS 17/12/2004].
Written on object - SUDAN, SHILLUK TRIBE, coll. in 1923. d.d. E.W. Russell [RTS 17/12/2004].
