logo
Open today 10 am – 5 pm

Tobacco Pipe

Object Number:P949B
Current Location: Collections Storage
Culture:Madang
Provenience: Borneo
Sarawak
Silat River
Section:Oceanian
Materials:Bamboo
Wood
Peel
Plant Fiber
Height: 14 cm
Length: 46 cm
Outside Diameter:4.4 cm
Credit Line:Gift of Alfred C. Harrison Jr. and Dr. H. M. Hiller, 1899

Description

Tobacco pipe. Supak. Length of bamboo, somewhat bent, with a wooden bowl inserted in a hole near one end. Decoratively twisted band of rattan peel and some dark twisted fiber. "The stem is a piece of bamboo more than an inch in diameter, into which is set a straight, slim bowl, which can hold only a small wad of tobacco. In the stem they insert a plug of shredded palm leaes, or of shavings of wood, bound on a stick; and then take the end of the stem into their mouths, and having first got the tobacco well alight by a few gentle puffs, they give a powerful suck, whereby the wad of glowing tobacco is drawn down through the bowl into the stem, but is prevented from reaching the mouth by the plug of palm leaves." (Home-Life of Borneo Head-Hunters)

You may also be interested in these objects:


Report problems and issues to digitalmedia@pennmuseum.org.