{"id":"AUSMAIN-017","label":"Itchumundi","people_or_site":"Itchumundi","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Lower Darling River (Wilcannia-Menindee-Bourke arc)","macroregion":"Australia / New South Wales","local_name":"Bungumbelli (large) / Purtali (small)","source_term":"Bungumbelli (large) / Purtali (small)","source_language":"","object_description":"Pair of whirled wooden slats, one larger and one smaller.","function_summary":"Initiation + healing-exorcism; medicine-man's two-instrument set.","attestation_type":"secondary_catalog","source_key":"mining2026","source_type":"secondary_literature","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Native_Tribes_of_South-East_Australia.djvu/702","page_or_plate":"p.702","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"approximate territory centroid (mining 2026)","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Itchumundi nation of the Lower Darling — the Wilya, Kongait, Bulali, and Tongaranka tribes whose country lay back from the river toward the Grey and Barrier Ranges — two bull-roarers were sounded at the initiation ceremonies. The larger, Bungumbelli, was the charge of the tribe's medicine-man, who cut a fresh notch into it for every ceremony at which it was whirled. The smaller, Purtali, served the rites as well, but the medicine-men also used it in cases of sickness, as a kind of exorcism. During the ceremonies the novice drank blood from the arm of one of the old men, and was supposed thereby to be infused with a manly spirit.","pull_quote":"The smaller one is called Purtali and is used not only at the ceremonies, but also in cases of sickness by the medicine-men as a sort of exorcism.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1904), p.702","term_gloss":"Bungumbelli, the larger bull-roarer kept by the medicine-man and notched once per ceremony; Purtali, the smaller, used in both initiation and curative exorcism.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","initiation"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"etymology":"In the Itchumundi nation of the lower Darling, the larger of the two circumcision bull-roarers was called Bungumbelli; it was kept by the tribe's medicine-man, who cut a fresh notch on it for each ceremony at which it was used. Howitt records the name only as 'large bull-roarer', with no deeper meaning supplied.","literal_gloss":"large bull-roarer","semantic_cluster":"size_class","etymology_confidence":"high","sources":[{"citation":"Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1904)","url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Native_Tribes_of_South-East_Australia.djvu/702","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013000411/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Native_Tribes_of_South-East_Australia.djvu/702"}],"source_citations":"Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1904)","source_display":"Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1904)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Pair of whirled wooden slats, one larger and one smaller.","function_display":"Initiation + healing-exorcism; medicine-man's two-instrument set.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"secondary catalog","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"itchumundi","display_name":"Itchumundi","image":{"full":"assets/objects/shared_mathews1898_plateVI_full.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/shared_mathews1898_plateVI_full_thumb.jpg","alt":"Mathews' 1898 survey plate of Australian bull-roarers.","credit":"R. H. Mathews, 'Bullroarers used by the Australian Aborigines', Journal of the Anthropological Institute 27 (1898), Plate VI","license":"Public domain (Mathews 1898)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/sim_royal-anthropological-institute-of-great-britain-ireland_february-23-1897-january-25-1898_27","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Mathews' 1898 survey plate of Australian bull-roarers."},"slug":"ausmain-017-itchumundi"}