{"id":"MATHEWS1896-001","label":"Boolpee behind the returning line","people_or_site":"Novan / Anaiwan and Yungai-speaking New England peoples","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"New England Tableland, Moonbi–Ben Lomond–Walcha–Bundarra/Inverell belt","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"Boolpee","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English / local term","object_description":"Bullroarers swung on strings; a large one was called Boolpee.","function_summary":"Sounded morning and evening at the ceremonial camp, carried as the messengers' summons, covered the taking and the revelation of the novices, answered the goomat envoys, and announced the procession's return to the women's camp.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"mathews_1896_new_england_boolpee","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/proceedingsofroy09roya","page_or_plate":"printed pp. 128-132","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative centre of Mathews's explicitly described New England belt; not an exact ceremony site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Through the New England Burbung the bullroarer set the tempo of the whole gathering. On the tableland from Moonbi to Ben Lomond, a single man sounded one every evening after dusk and again before daylight beside the main camp; the men raised a shout in unison and the elderly women sang and beat their rugs in accompaniment. Messengers carried one to summon each camp, swinging it quietly at evening until the old men began to sing 'Birr! birr!' and came out to fetch them in. On the night the boys were taken, two men worked the instruments along the path between the two cleared rings while rugs went over the novices' heads and the women lay covered in bushes. Weeks later, blankets were lifted off the boys' faces as two men swung bullroarers and the elders threatened them with death if they ever told; and a large one, Boolpee, sounded at the rear of the procession coming home.","pull_quote":"During every night of the sojourn of the boys in the bush, the bullroarer is sounded by one of the men somewhere out of sight.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Mathews 1896, printed p. 129","term_gloss":"Boolpee: a large bullroarer.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["initiation","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"R. H. Mathews, The Burbung of the New England Tribes, New South Wales, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 9 n.s. (1896), 120-136","url":"https://archive.org/details/proceedingsofroy09roya"}],"source_citations":"R. H. Mathews, The Burbung of the New England Tribes, New South Wales, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 9 n.s. (1896), 120-136","source_display":"R. H. Mathews, The Burbung of the New England Tribes, New South Wales, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 9 n.s. (1896), 120-136","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bullroarers swung on strings; a large one was called Boolpee.","function_display":"Sounded morning and evening at the ceremonial camp, carried as the messengers' summons, covered the taking and the revelation of the novices, answered the goomat envoys, and announced the procession's return to the women's camp.","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"novan","display_name":"Boolpee behind the returning line","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’s Australian survey plate; Kamilaroi blade at fig. 5.","pool_id":"australian-mathews-survey","last_modified":"2026-09-06"},"slug":"mathews1896-001-novan-anaiwan-and-yungai-speaking-new-england-peoples"}