This personable, 4″ tall critter is at QBO’s downtown location, just waiting for his forever home. He’s handmade of gritty, unglazed clay. On inspection he reveals a surprise – he’s actually a whistle or ocarina; a wind instrument also known as (ha ha!) a “Sweet Potato Flute” due to its shape. Because ocarinas are so simple (just a hollow oblong with a mouthpiece and usually 4 – 12 fingerholes) they are easily adapted to creative forms such as animals, fish, birds, fruit, skulls, whatever! Someone even invented a hybrid Asian teacup/ocarina called a “Teacarina” so you can sip your tea and play a tune using the very same object. Ocarinas are made of clay, plastic, glass, metal, wood, or bone; even REAL vegetables can be carved into playable ocarinas!
On this little guy, the hole at the end of his tail is the mouthpiece, while the other holes (on his sides and bottom next to the maker’s stamp) can be covered or uncovered with your fingertips to alter the pitch. Whistles, which are easily fashioned from something as basic as a hollow reed, have been in use around the world since prehistoric times, allowing their slightly more complex cousin the ocarina to evolve independently in Asia, Europe and Mesoamerica as long as 12,000 years ago.
This wind instrument traveled here from Belize, a country about 1/10th the size of Oregon. Belize is located on the Caribbean coast of northern Central America and shares a border with both Mexico and Guatemala. It’s part of the Caribbean and is a member of CARICOM, a political and economic union of member states throughout the Americas, The Caribbean and The Atlantic Ocean. Historically the dominant population was Mayan but today Belize is multicultural with people of Mayan descent making up 10% of the population. The Maya civilization developed in the region that is today southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras and El Salvador. Mayans lived in city-states, each ruled by a king. Historically known for sophisticated art, architecture, mathematics and an impressively accurate astronomical calendar, the Maya civilization also developed the most complex writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas using pictographic glyphs. Today, there are over 6 million Mayans living in the same regions as their ancestors, speaking more than 28 surviving Mayan languages, but because Belize was once colonized by Great Britain, English is their official state language.
Belize’s Mayan population is relevant here, both because Mayans played ocarinas for centuries before the Spanish conquistadors arrived, and because this clay animal is wearing a traditional, pre-European Mayan outfit. For comparison, here’s a panel from Cancuén Guatemala of a Mayan king and two attendants in similar clothing and headdresses. This statuette may even represent a minor Mayan deity or folkloric, supernatural being in animal form.
As to what specific animal, there are several long-snooted contenders native to Belize; the Paca (Cuniculus paca) a mid-sized, edible, jungle-dwelling rodent given the nick-name of “the Royal Rat” after the English Queen Elizabeth graciously ate a paca-based dish when visiting Belize. Or, as suggested by a store visitor, it could be an Anteater, the Northern Tamandua (Tamandua mexicana) a tree-climbing, prehensile-tailed insectivore from Belize’s tropical and subtropical forests. Or, (most likely since this piece was probably made as a tourist souvenir) it could be a Tapir (Tapirus) a pig-sized, nocturnal, solitary herbivore and relative to both horses and rhinos that also happens to be the National Animal of Belize. Come on out and give him a tootle!
Japanese gentleman playing REAL vegetable ocarinas! www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5aUz9cDaCY
Tuesday Treasures was started by our staff member, Jeanne Lusignan. Each week she will be featuring items that have been found at our estate sales. If you would like to submit a treasure for Jeanne to feature in a future installment of “Tuesday’s Treasures”, please follow the button below and send us an email! Please attach a few photos of your treasure in a beautiful setting as well as any details you have about your item such as manufacturer, use, age, region of origin. If you don’t know about the piece, that’s okay! We still might be able to research it for you! Don’t forget to tell us what makes this item such a treasure to you!