{"id":"SERVIER1970-004","label":"Sinhalese runa procession toy","people_or_site":"Ceylon / Sri Lanka","country_current":"Sri Lanka","historic_region":"Ceylon","macroregion":"South Asia","local_name":"","source_term":"rombo","source_language":"Spanish translation of French original","object_description":"A thin oblong slip of wood or bamboo, tied by string or kitul fibre to a stick and swung rapidly round.","function_summary":"Children’s toy sounded by boys following Colombo’s Perahera procession.","attestation_type":"secondary_catalog","source_key":"SELIGMANN1900_CEYLON_RUNA","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Folk-lore_-_A_Quarterly_Review._Volume_11,_1900.djvu/478","page_or_plate":"Seligmann 1900, Folklore 11, printed p. 456 (scan leaf 478); Perera 1912, Spolia Zeylanica 8, p. 147, note 22.","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"country/island centroid; Servier and EB1911 give no locality or Buddhist ceremony name","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Boys followed Colombo’s Perahera procession with runa whirring above their heads. In Kandy, children supplied a sharper sound by cracking whips. The runa also belonged to ordinary play: children swung roughly cut wooden blades on sticks near Colombo, while children at Anuradhapura had neater bamboo versions. Boys also used a bamboo kotipetta to keep cattle out of the paddy fields, its growl likened to a cheetah.","pull_quote":"I was informed that at Colombo a troop of boys whirling these toys, called runa, followed the Perahera procession (a ceremony in the great Buddhist festival held annually about the end of May). This is not done at Kandy, their place being taken by boys' cracking whips.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"C. G. Seligmann, \"The Bull-Roarer in Ceylon,\" Folklore 11 (1900)","term_gloss":"runa — the Sinhalese children's name Seligmann recorded for the whirled wooden slat at Colombo. The companion cattle-scarer is the kotipetta (koti, cheetah; petta, a thin slip of wood) or helibambara of Perera's note.","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,"sources":[{"citation":"C. G. Seligmann, 'The Bull-Roarer in Ceylon,' Folklore 11 (1900), p. 456; A. A. Perera, 'A Sinhalese Toy,' Spolia Zeylanica 8 (1912), p. 147, note 22; Jean Servier, El hombre y lo invisible (Spanish trans. of L'homme et l'invisible), p. 138","url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Folk-lore_-_A_Quarterly_Review._Volume_11,_1900.djvu/478","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013030615/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Folk-lore_-_A_Quarterly_Review._Volume_11,_1900.djvu/478"}],"source_citations":"C. G. Seligmann, 'The Bull-Roarer in Ceylon,' Folklore 11 (1900), p. 456; A. A. Perera, 'A Sinhalese Toy,' Spolia Zeylanica 8 (1912), p. 147, note 22; Jean Servier, El hombre y lo invisible (Spanish trans. of L'homme et l'invisible), p. 138","source_display":"C. G. Seligmann, 'The Bull-Roarer in Ceylon,' Folklore 11 (1900), p. 456; A. A. Perera, 'A Sinhalese Toy,' Spolia Zeylanica 8 (1912), p. 147, note 22; Jean Servier, El hombre y lo invisible (Spanish trans. of L'homme et l'invisible), p. 138","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A thin oblong slip of wood or bamboo, tied by string or kitul fibre to a stick and swung rapidly round.","function_display":"Children’s toy sounded by boys following Colombo’s Perahera procession.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"secondary catalog","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"ceylon","display_name":"Sinhalese runa procession toy","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-101_mus2026-101-maria-gond-burunga.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-101_mus2026-101-maria-gond-burunga_thumb.jpg","alt":"A Gond burunga from Gotpal, Bastar: a long wooden handle below a separate flat blade, linked by cord that loops around the handle.","credit":"© Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 71.1979.20.19.1-2; Geneviève Dournon collection","license":"Rights reserved (© Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac); museum requires express reproduction authorization. Proposed rehost for non-commercial research.","source_page":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/ccProxy.ashx?action=get&command=search&query=274061&range=1-10&fields=*&responseformat=json","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A Gond burunga on its cord and stick, Bastar, India.","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-101_mus2026-101-maria-gond-burunga"},"slug":"servier1970-004-ceylon-sri-lanka"}