Sherbro

min

min — Sherbro for the bull-roarers inside the "pawk" society bundle, glossed in the museum record as "spirit"; held to be the medicine proper and the enforcers of a court oath.

Etymology. Min is glossed in the museum record as "spirit" — the name for the whirled, "speaking" bull-roarers held to be the medicine proper, the spirit whose voice drives the women to flee.

Anyone who lied after swearing on this bundle, the men's secret society held, would have their sexual organs rot, their eyeballs burst from the sockets and lie on the cheeks, their bones break, or their intestines rot. The bundle is "pawk," the medicine of a Sherbro men's secret society on Sherbro Island, collected in 1937 by Henry Usher Hall for the University Museum's West African expedition and now at the Penn Museum. Its working parts are the min, the "spirit" — bull-roarers made to "speak" by whirling them around the head on a string; the leaves packed in with them are the antidote. Pawk was used principally to swear the accused and witnesses in court. Women could be sworn on it, but only with it kept covered, since they were not permitted to see its elements; and when the medicine was carried toward a village, tortoise-shells were beaten with a short stick and the women fled to the bush. The bundle itself is leaf, fiber, and turtle shell.

When the Society is in Session and the bull-roarers [min "spirit"] are heard, the women must hide in their houses or flee to the bush.

Penn Museum catalogue record, object 37-22-250 (Medicine Bundle, Sherbro, coll. Henry Usher Hall, 1937)

Particulars

Object

Pawk, a medicine bundle of leaf, fibre and turtle shell, 57 cm long and 70 cm wide, holding whirled bull-roarers (min).

Function

Men's secret-society 'pawk' bundle — bull-roarers whirled overhead serve as judicial-oath enforcers; leaves serve as antidote.