BATTAGLIA1925-003 - ethnographic attestation
Boys of the Friulian plain (Aquileia, Ronchi, Cervignano)
Friuli - Aquileia, Ronchi, Cervignano - Southern Europe (NE Italy)
Play / practical
el tuto Italian / local Istrian and Venetian names
Source term: rombo / el tuto (Aquileia)
el tuto — Aquileia; Battaglia derives it from Italian tutto 'all', via the top-game cry 'prendi tutto' ('take all') extended to the whirling toy.
On the Friulian plain the bullroarer lived out its last generations as a boys' plaything: a small rectangular slat on a string, seen whirling in the farm country around Aquileia, Ronchi and Cervignano within living memory when Battaglia asked in the 1920s. At Aquileia the boys called it el tuto — 'the take-all' — a name lifted from the winning cry of a spinning-top game. In the town that was once Rome's great Adriatic port, that was what remained of the roarer: a name, a string, and a memory.
Il rombo fu visto giocare anni addietro nella campagna di Aquileia, di Ronchi e di Cervignano... Ad Aquileia era chiamato el tuto.
The bullroarer was seen played years ago in the countryside of Aquileia, Ronchi and Cervignano... At Aquileia it was called el tuto.
Battaglia 1925:195
- Object
- Small rectangular wooden slat tied to one string; seen played in the countryside of Aquileia, Ronchi and Cervignano within living memory of 1925.
- Function
- Boys' toy of the farm country; already only a memory when Battaglia's informants described it.
- Map confidence
- high - Aquileia town anchor — the settlement where the name el tuto is attested; Ronchi and Cervignano lie within 15 km.
- Source location
- printed p. 195
- Toy / secular survival