{"id":"EXH2026-031","label":"Argyllshire srannair","people_or_site":"Scottish Highlands folk (Argyllshire)","country_current":"United Kingdom (Scotland)","historic_region":"Argyllshire (W Highlands); also seen in use in Edinburgh","macroregion":"Europe / British Isles","local_name":"srannair","source_term":"srannair / Bull Roarer","source_language":"English/Gaelic","object_description":"Notched strip of builder's lath, eight or nine inches long, whirled on a string tied at one end.","function_summary":"Boys' noise toy, whirled round the head for its moan.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"exhaustiveness2026","source_type":"secondary_literature","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/folklore16folkuoft","page_or_plate":"FL 16:440; PRM 1917.53.466","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Argyllshire (mid-Argyll)","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In Argyllshire the bull-roarer was called the srannair, and a correspondent to the Glasgow Evening News of 14 October 1901 recalled the one he had known. When the note was reprinted in the journal Folk-Lore in 1905, its editors remarked that none of their own collectors had recorded the toy, though they had seen it in use in Edinburgh, and they were glad to have proof that it had been used in the Highlands too.","pull_quote":"The \"srannair\" we had was made of a piece of builder's lath, eight or nine inches long, notched at the edges with a string at one end by which it was rapidly whirled round the player's head to give a sonorous moan.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Glasgow Evening News, 14 Oct. 1901, quoted in Folk-Lore 16 (1905), Collectanea, \"Noise Machines,\" p. 440","term_gloss":"srannair: Scottish Gaelic name for the whirled blade, from srann (\"to snore, drone\"), naming the instrument by the droning sound it makes.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"etymology":"Scottish Gaelic sound-word naming the instrument by its droning or moaning noise.","literal_gloss":"from srann, snore or drone","semantic_cluster":"sound; drone; whirr","etymology_confidence":"high","sources":[{"citation":"Glasgow Evening News (14 October 1901), via “Noise Machines,” Collectanea, Folk-Lore 16 (1905), p. 440","url":"https://archive.org/details/folklore16folkuoft"},{"citation":"Pitt Rivers Museum, accession 1917.53.466, Scottish Srannan"}],"source_citations":"Glasgow Evening News (14 October 1901), via “Noise Machines,” Collectanea, Folk-Lore 16 (1905), p. 440; Pitt Rivers Museum, accession 1917.53.466, Scottish Srannan","source_display":"Glasgow Evening News (14 October 1901), via “Noise Machines,” Collectanea, Folk-Lore 16 (1905), p. 440; Pitt Rivers Museum, accession 1917.53.466, Scottish Srannan","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Notched strip of builder's lath, eight or nine inches long, whirled on a string tied at one end.","function_display":"Boys' noise toy, whirled round the head for its moan.","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"scottish highlands","display_name":"Argyllshire srannair","image":{"full":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_03/EXH2026-031_prm_1917-53-466.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_03/thumbs/EXH2026-031_prm_1917-53-466_thumb.jpg","credit":"© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (1917.53.466)","license":"© Pitt Rivers Museum — non-commercial/educational reuse with attribution","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/search/simple-search/1917.53.466","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Another Scottish bull-roarer, labelled 'srannan': a saw-toothed wooden blade, its wool cord wound round it, in the Pitt Rivers Museum."},"slug":"exh2026-031-scottish-highlands-folk-argyllshire"}