- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Gourd vessel rattle with spherical body filled with pellets and a narrow handle below [RTS 2/9/2005].
- Long description
- Vessel rattle, made from a small gourd plant that has been hollowed out and dried. This has a spherical body and narrow tapering neck with rounded end that serves as the instrument's handle. The exterior of the gourd is a reddish brown colour (Pantone 7517C). The interior has been filled with a number of medium-sized pellets, probably seeds, that create a rattling sound when shaken. These would have been inserted through the top of the vessel, where a central hole has been cut; this has been sewn shut with a length of twisted 2-ply discoloured brown plant fibre cord (Pantone 7533C), with the stitches passing through a ring of 8 small holes around the mouth, then woven into a solid knot over the opening. This has been finished with a small supension loop of the same fibre, wound tightly around some kind of core. The rattle is complete and intact, with a weight of 44.3 grams; the body is 215 mm long, with a diameter of 99.3 by 98.7 mm; the handle has an upper diameter of 26 mm and a base diameter of 14 mm, while the suspension loop is 40 mm long, 5 mm wide and 5.5 mm thick [RTS 2/9/2005].
- Cultural groups
- Acholi
- Person
- Field collector Armine Charles Almroth Wright
- PRM source Henry Balfour
- PRM source Armine Charles Almroth Wright
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1939?, uncertain
- Date collected
- ?By 1939
- Acquisition information
- Found unentered: 1942
- Materials and processes
- Material Gourd Plant, Material Plant Fibre, Material Plant Seed, Process Hollowed, Process Dried, Process Perforated, Process Twisted, Process Stitched, Process Wound
- Dimensions
- Diameter: max 99 mm, Length: max 215 mm, Weight 44.3 g
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1942.1.425
- Research and responses
For similar rattles, see 1970.13.23 (with decoration) and 1942.1.426 from the Acholi (sealed in a different way), and 1979.20.11, from the Moru Misa.
Trowell and Wachsmann discuss Ugandan gourd rattles: "These are ubiquitous; they occupy a prominent place in magico-religious ceremonial and are used in many dances. As ritual practices decrease the rattles become rare, and it is already becoming difficult to secure specimens or at least to see them in action. The narrow neck of the calabash serves as a handle and the spherical part as the rattling vessel proper; the gourd is filled with stones or seeds. A normal length of the whole instrument is between twenty and thirty cm ... a hole in the apex of the gourd, where stones or seeds have been inserted, is sewn up carefully with a pattern of string (Acholi)..." (M. Trowell & K.P. Wachsmann, 1953, Tribal Crafts of Uganda, p. 322 and pl. 74A1, for a Lango example). This example shows the method of sealing described as being Acholi, suggesting its cultural attribution is correct [RTS 2/9/2005].
Search terms: Music, Ritual and Ceremonial, Status, Musical Instrument, Rattle