{"id":"GRIGSON1938-001","label":"Hill Maria ait, Abujhmarh","people_or_site":"Hill Maria (Abujhmarh Maria)","country_current":"India","historic_region":"Abujhmarh, Bastar State / Central Provinces","macroregion":"South Asia / Central India","local_name":"ait","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A strip of split bamboo, one end pointed and notched near the point to take a bark string; the string is looped round one finger and the blade whirled counter-clockwise. Grigson notes that none of the examples made for him were holed at the bottom. A 1979 field photograph by Geneviève Dournon (musée du quai Branly PF0147257) shows the same people's instrument at work in Bastar: a small leaf-shaped blade flying from a long cord at the end of a pole taller than its player, captioned by Dournon as a bullroarer for driving birds away from the crops.","function_summary":"A boys' toy, made on request at various camps and whirled for the noise; Grigson found no religious or magical use for it. A 1979 field photograph records a long-handled form used to drive birds from the crops.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"grigson1938_maria_gonds","source_type":"ethnographic_monograph","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.216336","page_or_plate":"Grigson 1938, p. 183 (printed index: 'Bull-roarers, 183.'; running head 'DANCING 183'); also p. 187 (running head 'RECKONING TIME 187'); glossary entry for ait","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Abujhmarh hills centroid, Narayanpur district, Chhattisgarh; Grigson gives no single village for the bull-roarers, which he saw made at several camps.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In the Abujhmarh hills the Hill Maria boys' roarer is called ait: a strip of split bamboo, one end sharpened and notched just below the point to take a bark string. The string loops round a finger and the blade goes round counter-clockwise until it roars. It is never pierced — where the roarers of Chota Nagpur are drilled and swung from a whip-handle, the Bastar blade is only notched, and spins from the fingers. There is no rite in it, no secret and no spirit. The ait sits with the spinning-top and the jew's-harp among the handful of amusements open to Hill Maria youth. Forty years on, Geneviève Dournon photographed the instrument at work in Bastar: a boy holding a pole taller than himself, a small leaf-shaped blade whirling from a long cord at its tip, put up — her caption says — to drive the birds off the crops.","pull_quote":"…the bull-roarers, which Hill Maria boys call ait and make of a strip of split bamboo, pointing one end and notching it near the point for a bark string, with which, looped round one finger, they whirl the bull-roarer round counter-clockwise.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"W. V. Grigson, The Maria Gonds of Bastar (1938), p. 183","term_gloss":"ait: the Hill Maria (Abujhmarh) name for the bull-roarer, recorded by Grigson.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["agriculture","toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"W. V. Grigson, The Maria Gonds of Bastar (London: Oxford University Press, 1938), pp. 183, 187, glossary s.v. ait","url":"https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.216336"},{"citation":"musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Geneviève Dournon photograph PF0147257, slide MPD9 (Bastar, 1979), “Rhombe pour éloigner les oiseaux des récoltes”"}],"source_citations":"W. V. Grigson, The Maria Gonds of Bastar (London: Oxford University Press, 1938), pp. 183, 187, glossary s.v. ait; musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Geneviève Dournon photograph PF0147257, slide MPD9 (Bastar, 1979), “Rhombe pour éloigner les oiseaux des récoltes”","source_display":"W. V. Grigson, The Maria Gonds of Bastar (London: Oxford University Press, 1938), pp. 183, 187, glossary s.v. ait; musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Geneviève Dournon photograph PF0147257, slide MPD9 (Bastar, 1979), “Rhombe pour éloigner les oiseaux des récoltes”","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A strip of split bamboo, one end pointed and notched near the point to take a bark string; the string is looped round one finger and the blade whirled counter-clockwise. Grigson notes that none of the examples made for him were holed at the bottom. A 1979 field photograph by Geneviève Dournon (musée du quai Branly PF0147257) shows the same people's instrument at work in Bastar: a small leaf-shaped blade flying from a long cord at the end of a pole taller than its player, captioned by Dournon as a bullroarer for driving birds away from the crops.","function_display":"A boys' toy, made on request at various camps and whirled for the noise; Grigson found no religious or magical use for it. A 1979 field photograph records a long-handled form used to drive birds from the crops.","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"hill maria","display_name":"Hill Maria ait, Abujhmarh","image":{"full":"assets/objects/fresh_2026_09/MQB_PF0147257_abujh_maria_dournon_1979.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/fresh_2026_09/thumbs/MQB_PF0147257_abujh_maria_dournon_1979_thumb.jpg","alt":"Photograph from Bastar, 1979: an Abujh Maria boy holds a pole with a cord running from its tip to a bullroarer blade; a man stands behind him.","credit":"Photo Geneviève Dournon, 1979 — © musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac (PF0147257)","license":"© musée du quai Branly — rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"An Abujh Maria boy in Bastar, 1979, holds a bullroarer aloft on a pole to scare birds off crops."},"slug":"grigson1938-001-hill-maria-abujhmarh-maria"}