The bullroarer,[Haddon, The Study of Man, p. 219: "Prof. E. B. Tylor informs me that the name of 'bull-roarer' was first introduced into anthropological literature by the Rev. Lorimer Fison, who compares the Australian tundun to 'the wooden toy which I remember to have made as a boy, called a 'bull-roarer',' and this term has since been universally adopted as the technical name for the implement." Fison] rhombus, or turndun is an ancient ritual musical instrument and a device historically used for communicating over great distances.
It dates to the Paleolithic period, examples dating from 18,000 BC having been found in Ukraine. Anthropologist Michael Boyd, a bullroarer expert, documents a number found in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Australia.
Many different cultures believe that the sounds they make have the power to Apotropaic magic.
Design, use, and sound
A bullroarer consists of a weighted
airfoil (a rectangular thin slat of
wood about long and about wide) attached to a long
rope. Typically, the wood slat is trimmed down to a sharp edge and serrations along the length of the wooden slat may or may not be used, depending on the cultural traditions of the region in question.
The cord is given a slight initial twist, and the roarer is then swung in a large circle in a horizontal plane, or in a smaller circle in a vertical plane. The aerodynamics of the roarer thrown in this centrifugal force will keep it spinning about its axis even after the initial twist has unwound. The cord winds fully first in one direction and then the other, alternating.
It makes a characteristic roaring vibrato sound with notable sound modulations occurring from the rotation of the roarer along its longitudinal axis, and the choice of whether a shorter or longer length of cord is used to spin the bullroarer. By modifying the expansiveness of its circuit and the speed given it, and by changing the plane in which the bullroarer is whirled from horizontal to vertical or vice versa, the modulation of the sound produced can be controlled, making the coding of information possible.
The low-frequency component of the sound travels extremely long distances, clearly audible over many miles on a quiet night.
In culture
Various cultures have used bullroarers as musical, ritual, and religious instruments and long-range communication devices for at least 19,000 years.
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Navajo
tsin ndi'ni'
"groaning stick"[Fransciscan Fathers, An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language, p. 414.][Young, R & Morgan, W An Analytical Lexicon of Navajo, (1992) University of New Mexico Press , p. 461.] | Apache
tzi-ditindi
"sounding wood"[Powell, Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 477: "Fig. 430.—Rhombus of the Apache."] | Gros Ventre
nakaantan
"making cold"[Kroeber, "Ethnology of the Gros Ventre", p. 190: "Fig. 26 (50-1788). Bull-roarer, Length, 56 cm."] |
This instrument has been used by numerous early and traditional cultures in both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, but in the popular consciousness it is perhaps best known for its use by Aboriginal Australians (it is from one of their languages that the name
turndun comes).
Henry Cowell composed a composition for two violins, viola, two celli, and two bullroarers.[Blades, James (1992). Percussion Instruments and Their History, p.394. Bold Strummer. .] A bullroarer featured in the Kate Bush Before The Dawn concerts in London 2014.
Australian Aboriginal culture
Bullroarers have been used in initiation ceremonies and in
to ward off evil spirits, and for bad tidings. Bullroarers are considered secret men's business by all or almost all Aboriginal tribal groups, and hence forbidden for women, children, non-initiated men, or outsiders to even hear. Fison and Howitt documented this in "Kamilaroi and Kurnai" (page 198). Anyone caught breaching the imposed secrecy was to be punished by death.
They are used in men's initiation ceremonies, and the sound they produce is considered in some indigenous cultures to represent the sound of the Rainbow Serpent. In the cultures of southeastern Australia, the sound of the bullroarer is the voice of Daramulan, and a successful bullroarer can be made only if it has been cut from a tree containing his spirit.
The bullroarer can also be used as a tool in Aboriginal art.
Bullroarers have sometimes been referred to as "wife-callers" by Indigenous Australians.
A bullroarer is used by Paul Hogan in the 1988 film Crocodile Dundee II. John Antill included one in the orchestration of his ballet Corroboree (1946).
An Australian band Midnight Oil included a recording of an imitation bullroarer on their album Diesel and Dust (1987) at the beginning of the song "Bullroarer". In an interview, the band's drummer Rob Hirst stated "it's a sacred instrument... only initiated men are supposed to hear those sounds. So we didn't use a real bullroarer as that would have been cultural imperialism. Instead we used an imitation bullroarer that school kids in Australia use. It is a ruler with a piece of rope wrapped around it."
Ancient Greece
In
Ancient Greece, bullroarers were especially used in the ceremonies of the cult of
Cybele. A bullroarer was known as a
rhombos (literally meaning "whirling" or "rumbling"), both to describe its sonic character and its typical shape, the
rhombus. (
Rhombos also sometimes referred to the
rhoptron, a buzzing drum).
Great Britain and Ireland
In Great Britain and Ireland, the bullroarer—under a number of different names and styles—is used chiefly for amusement, although formerly it may have been used for ceremonial purposes.
[Haddon, The Study of Man,p 225: "Those given to me were made for me, and may not represent the common form of bull-roarer in the north-east corner of Ireland. My informant stated that once when, as a boy, he was playing with a 'boomer' an old country woman said it was a 'sacred' thing."] In parts of Scotland it was known as a "thunder-spell" and was thought to protect against being struck by lightning.
[Haddon, The Study of Man, p. 222: "It was believed that the use of this instrument thunder-spell during a thunder-storm saved one from being struck with 'the thun'er-bolt'."] In the
Elizabeth Goudge novel
Gentian Hill (1949), set in Devon in the early 19th century, a bullroarer figures as a toy cherished by Sol, an elderly farm labourer, who uses it occasionally to express strong emotion; however, the sound it makes is perceived as being both eerie and unlucky by two other characters, who have an uneasy sense that ominous spirits of the air ("Them") are being invoked by its whirring whistle.
[Goudge, Elizabeth. Gentian Hill, New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1946, pp. 71-72, 168, 315-321, 346-348, 354.]
Scandinavia
Scandinavian Stone Age cultures used the bullroarer. In 1991, the archeologists Hein B. Bjerck and Martinius Hauglid found a 6.4 cm-long piece of slate that turned out to be a 5000-year-old bullroarer (called a
brummer in Scandinavia). It was found in Tuv in northern Norway, a place that was inhabited in the Stone Age.
Mali
The
Dogon people use bullroarers to announce the beginning of ceremonies conducted during the
Sigui festival held every sixty years over a seven-year period. The sound has been identified as the voice of an ancestor from whom all Dogon are descended.
Polynesia
Native Hawaiians have
oeoe of two sizes: a large one made of coconut shell producing a deep thrum, and a smaller one made of the kamani nut producing a high shrill.
The pūrerehua is a traditional Māori bullroarer made from wood, stone or bone and attached to a long string supposed to imitate the sound of a moth, hence its name. The instruments were traditionally used for healing or making rain.
Native North American
Almost all the native tribes in North America used bullroarers in religious and healing ceremonies and as toys. There are many styles.
North Alaskan Inupiat bullroarers are known as imigluktaaq or imigluktaun and described as toy noise maker of bone or wood and braided sinew (wolf-scare).
Banks Island Eskimos were still using Bullroarers in 1963, when a 59 year old woman named Susie scared off four polar bears armed only with three seal hooks acting as such accompanied by vocals.
Pomo
The inland
Pomo tribes of California used bullroarers as a central part of the
xalimatoto or Thunder ceremony. Four male tribe members, accompanied by a drummer, would spin bullroarers made from cottonwood, imitating the sound of a thunder storm.
Native South American
of the
Amazon basin, for example in
Tupi people, Kamayurá and
Bororo culture used bullroarers as musical instrument for rituals. In
Tupian languages, the bullroarer is known as
hori hori.
See also
Other sources
-
Franciscan Fathers. An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language. Saint Michaels, Arizona: Navajo Indian Mission (1910.
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Lang, A. "Bull-roarer", in J. Hastings, "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics II", p. 889-890 (1908-1927).
-
Kroeber, A.L. "Ethnology of the Gros Ventre", Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History pp. 145–283. New York: Published by Order of the Trustees (1908).
-
Powell, J.W. (Director). Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1887-'88. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office (1892).
-
Hart, Mickey Planet Drum, A Celebration of Percussion and Rhythm pp. 154–155. New York: HarperCollins (1991).
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Battaglia, R., Sopravvivenze del rombo nelle Province Venete (con 7 illustrazioni), Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 1 (1925), pp. 190–217.
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