Mirroodee for a fallen emu

mirroodee

Source term: mirroodee (bullroarer)

mirroodee: bullroarer. yeenma (or eemerree): a separate, larger sacred board shown to young men after initiation. Beedung and weeree: the runs (country) of Kondebomur's people.

When an emu was killed along the Sanford River, the mirroodee told the camp. Smoke carried other news, and Kondebomur, a man of Meega in the Murchison country, drew the line carefully: "Bush fire is made, no smoke if a kangaroo is killed. A mirroodee (bullroarer) is sounded if an emu is killed." The great flightless bird, the biggest prize of the dry scrub, had its own announcement in sound. His people also kept a larger board, the yeenma, shown to a boy once he had been made a man; later it was drawn across his chest without drawing blood, and given to him to look after for a time.

A mirroodee (bullroarer) is sounded if an emu is killed.

Kondebomur of Meega, Sanford River, in Daisy Bates's vocabulary questionnaire, folio 54/68

Particulars

Object

A bullroarer called mirroodee; its construction is not recorded.

Function

Sounded to announce that an emu had been killed; a kangaroo kill, by contrast, was marked by no smoke signal.