{"id":"BATES1904-001","label":"Mirroodee for a fallen emu","people_or_site":"Beedung and weeree people of Meega, Sanford River (Kondebomur)","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Murchison district, Western Australia (Sanford River)","macroregion":"Australia / Western Australia","local_name":"mirroodee","source_term":"mirroodee (bullroarer)","source_language":"English","object_description":"A bullroarer called mirroodee; its construction is not recorded.","function_summary":"Sounded to announce that an emu had been killed; a kangaroo kill, by contrast, was marked by no smoke signal.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"bates_kondebomur_meega","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://bates.org.au/text/54-050T.html","page_or_plate":"folio 54/68 (typescript 54-068T); 54/71 (54-071T)","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Sanford River, Murchison district (OpenStreetMap river feature -27.351/116.464); Meega itself not located.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"When an emu was killed along the Sanford River, the mirroodee told the camp. Smoke carried other news, and Kondebomur, a man of Meega in the Murchison country, drew the line carefully: \"Bush fire is made, no smoke if a kangaroo is killed. A mirroodee (bullroarer) is sounded if an emu is killed.\" The great flightless bird, the biggest prize of the dry scrub, had its own announcement in sound. His people also kept a larger board, the yeenma, shown to a boy once he had been made a man; later it was drawn across his chest without drawing blood, and given to him to look after for a time.","pull_quote":"A mirroodee (bullroarer) is sounded if an emu is killed.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Kondebomur of Meega, Sanford River, in Daisy Bates's vocabulary questionnaire, folio 54/68","term_gloss":"mirroodee: bullroarer. yeenma (or eemerree): a separate, larger sacred board shown to young men after initiation. Beedung and weeree: the runs (country) of Kondebomur's people.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Daisy Bates, 'Kondebomur of Meega, Sanford River', vocabulary questionnaire, folio 54/68 and 54/71 (Digital Daisy Bates)","url":"https://bates.org.au/text/54-050T.html","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20170311121037/https://bates.org.au/text/54-050T.html"}],"source_citations":"Daisy Bates, 'Kondebomur of Meega, Sanford River', vocabulary questionnaire, folio 54/68 and 54/71 (Digital Daisy Bates)","source_display":"Daisy Bates, 'Kondebomur of Meega, Sanford River', vocabulary questionnaire, folio 54/68 and 54/71 (Digital Daisy Bates)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bullroarer called mirroodee; its construction is not recorded.","function_display":"Sounded to announce that an emu had been killed; a kangaroo kill, by contrast, was marked by no smoke signal.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"beedung","display_name":"Mirroodee for a fallen emu","image":{"full":"assets/objects/pd_plates/luschan1896_upper_murchison_vi10488.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/pd_plates/luschan1896_upper_murchison_vi10488_thumb.jpg","alt":"Luschan’s plate drawing of an Upper Murchison bullroarer with a long crosshatched diamond-patterned blade and braided human-hair cord attached at one end.","credit":"Felix von Luschan, Festschrift für Adolf Bastian (1896), p. 135; Berlin VI 10488","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Festschrift_f%C3%BCr_Adolf_Bastian_-_zu_seinem_70._Geburtstage,_26._juni_1896_(IA_festschriftfurad00bast).pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A bullroarer from the upper Murchison, with a braided hair cord.","pool_id":"auto-pd_plates--luschan1896_upper_murchison_vi10488"},"slug":"bates1904-001-beedung-and-weeree-people-of-meega-sanford-river-kondebomur"}