The Bullroarer Atlas

SUBSAH-028 - museum specimen

Sherbro

Sierra Leone - Sherbro Island, Bonthe District - West Africa

Restricted

Tasso men of the Poro secret society in Imperri country, photographed by Alldridge in 1901 — the society whose min bull-roarer is documented...
Tasso men of the Poro secret society in Imperri country, photographed by Alldridge in 1901 — the society whose min bull-roarer is documented here; the instrument itself does not appear in the period sources. T. J. Alldridge, The Sherbro and its Hinterland (1901), fig. 41 Public domain Image source

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. (high confidence)

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 held at the Penn Museum. Its working parts are the "min" (glossed in the record as "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 Penn record lists the bundle's materials as leaf, fiber, and turtle shell.

The min or bull-roarers, which are made to 'speak' by whirling them around the head at a string, are the 'medicine' proper; the leaves are antidotes.

Penn Museum catalogue record, object 37-22-250 (Medicine Bundle, Sherbro, coll. Henry Usher Hall, 1937)
Object
Medicine bundle ('min') containing whirled bull-roarers used in 'swearing' parties in court; Penn Museum, acc. 37-22-250.
Function
Men's secret-society 'pawk' bundle — bull-roarers whirled overhead serve as judicial-oath enforcers; leaves serve as antidote.
Map confidence
high - approximate territory centroid (mining 2026)
Source location
acc. 37-22-250

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