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Description

Ivory wand carved with formline designs and used by shaman or sgaaga. [CAK 16/6/2009]

Longer Description

Ivory wand carved with formline designs and used by shaman or sgaaga. Long thin wand tapering at one end. The opposite end is perforated and covered with zoomorphic incised images. There is a brown pigment in the incisions. [NM 14 1 1997]

Publications History

Reproduced in black and white as figure 18 on page 8 of 'Haida Art in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, and the Rev. Charles Harrison', by June Bedford, in European Review of Native American Studies, Vol. XII, no. 2 (1998), pp. 1-10. Caption reads: 'Shamans [sic] bone charm ("Spirit charmer, usd [sic] in [sic] summoning spirits by devil doctor Kootay").' [JC 16 4 1999]

Primary Documentation

Accession book entry: 'From Rev. Ch. Harrison, 80 Halton Rd, Canonbury Sq. N. Collection of Haida objects collected by him.... - Carved bone wand, consulted by medicine man. £45 [Purchases price includes 1891.49.1-110]

Written on object - Spirit charmer, used for summoning spirits by devil doctor Kootay. Haida. C. Harrison coll (MS. No. 7) Purch. 1891. [NM 14 1 1997]

No additional information on catalogue cards. [JC 4 9 1996]

Pitt Rivers Museum display label - Bone wand used by the celebrated 'devil doctor' KOOTAY to summon spirits, &, with the assistance of a live mouse, to detect persons who had caused illness by witchcraft. HAIDA, Q. CHARLOTTE IS. Rev. C Harrison coll..Purch..1891. [CAK 16/6/2009]

Written on object - SPIRIT CHARMER, USED FOR SUMMONING SPIRITS BY DEVIL DOCTOR KOOTAY. HAIDA. C. HARRISON COLLN (MS. No. 7) PURCD 1891. [CAK 16/6/2009]

Related Documents File - The Haida Project Related Documents File contains video of research sessions and interviews with Haida delegates from September 2009 as part of the project ‘Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge'. It also includes post-visit communications that discuss object provenance. For extensive photographic, video, and textual records documenting the Haida research visit as a whole, including but not limited to preparations of objects for handling, travel logistics, British Museum participation, transcribed notes from research sessions and associated public events held at PRM, see the Haida Project Digital Archive, stored with the Accessions Registers. Original hand-written notes taken during research sessions have been accessioned into the Manuscripts collection, in addition to select other materials. [CAK 02/06/2010]

Research Notes

The following information comes from Haida delegates who worked with the museum's collection in September 2009 as part of the project “Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge”:
This wand was viewed alongside other shamanic material on Friday Sept 11, 2009. Christian White spoke of the style of carving on the wand as an old style, or archaic formline. He noted in particular that the formline is thick, while the ovoids are small. He identified the material as ivory. Delegates requested shamanic material not be on display and asked if the words 'devil doctor' could be removed the object as this mistranslation of the word sgaaga, or medicine man/shaman, is offensive. [CAK 08/04/2010]

The following account can be found in Harrison's Manuscript (Land of the Haidas), with PRM's Taylor Papers, Box 17. Ms1-48 (see pages 23-4):
“A spirit charmer is made out of a sea lion's rib. It is highly carved, not an inch but what has some figure upon it. Doctor Kootay gave me one that had been in his family for the last eight generations of doctors, and consequently must be about three hundred years old. This charm is the great protector of the medicine man from all evil disposed spirits. It can shield him from sickness and death. He takes the bone in his hand, goes into the forest, and lo! the spirits he requires are there at his command. This bone then has the power to bring to him the spirit that he wishes to talk to. By this wonderful charm he can also compel the spirits of his people before death to enter into beasts and birds. Whenever any one is sick his charm is consulted. He takes a mouse in one hand and his charm in the other, and walked into every house in the village to find out if any of the people have caused the person his sickness. When the [pg 24] mouse and the charm have done their duty, should the man be ill through the ill advice or poison administered to him by any of the people, the doctor then states before the whole assembly in the sick man's house, that the mouse and charm have correctly pointed out to him the culprit, and the consequence is, that the man who is blamed for making his friend ill has to pay heavily for the damage he has done. The doctor came up several times to consult this charm after he had given it to me, as he said that in some special cases, he was almost powerless without it, and was afraid that the spirits would eventually refuse to to [sic] assist him. To make sure of it I sent it to London. When the old doctor heard of it he was greatly annoyed, and declared that he had never intended me to keep it.” [CAK 19/06/2009]