Pounder

Item number C339 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

Public

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Data
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Description

Long, cylindrical stone pounder with head at top. Face has inlaid shell eyes.

History Of Use

For food

Narrative

According to Burnett, this pounder was looked upon as a charm by the villagers from whom it was obtained, who appeared to use only wooden punders. He also wrote: "... my most valuable finds were a black stone food masher, one end carved into a female head with inlaid, pearl, shell eyes; also a woman's bust in ebony...." He later states that after "... several ineffectual attempts to obtain these two valuable articles, I enlisted Mr. Wheatley's services, with the result that I eventually secured them." He also wrote, regarding the pounder, "The native owner ... could give no idea as to its history. All he could say was that no one in the village knew from whence it came, ...that not even the oldest inhabitant had ever heard or known of stone food mashers being used, ...that the consensus of belief was that the Gods had made it."