Kota burnt-pattern bullroarer

Source term: vinare / bullroarer

vinare: the Swedish museum's term for a bullroarer, not a Kota word. Kuta, Bakuta and Bakota are other names for the Kota.

A small wooden plate, patterned all over with lines burnt into the grain, was swung around in the air at religious ceremonies until it sounded. It reached Stockholm with its cord snapped and knotted back on itself, and the museum's own cataloguer looked at what was left and said plainly what was wrong: for the thing to work, the cord would have to be a great deal longer than this. Nineteen centimetres of decorated wood and a shortened string, seventy-three centimetres in all, are the whole of what survives of the Kota instrument.

För att vinaren ska fungera måste snöret vara betydligt längre. Ljudet uppstår när plattan svingas runt i luften. Används vid religiösa ceremonier.

For the bullroarer to work, the cord has to be considerably longer. The sound arises when the plate is swung around in the air. Used at religious ceremonies.

SMVK / Etnografiska museet, object record 1993.06.0212

Particulars

Object

A wooden plate 19 cm long, 6.5 cm wide and 0.8 cm thick, decorated with pyrographed patterns burnt into the surface, carrying a cord that has snapped and been knotted back together; plate and surviving cord together measure 73 cm (SMVK 1993.06.0212).

Function

Used in religious ceremonies; the plate sounds when whirled round in the air.