BATTAGLIA1925-004 - ethnographic attestation
Boys of Trieste (Rozzol-Settefontane and other districts)
Trieste - Rozzol-Settefontane - Southern Europe (NE Italy)
Play / practical
la striga Italian / local Istrian and Venetian names
Source term: la striga; the game 'far el vento'
la striga — Triestine 'the witch' (strega); the game was far el vento, 'to make the wind'.
In Trieste the bullroarer was cut from the lightest wood to hand — the slats of orange crates — thirty to sixty centimetres long, a hole at one end, whirled at a run through the summer streets. Sixty years before Battaglia wrote, the children of Rozzol-Settefontane called its dark voice la striga, the witch: 'Senti come che ziga la striga,' they shouted — hear how the witch screeches. Other Trieste boys named the game itself: far el vento, making the wind.
'Senti come che ziga la striga', esclamavano i monelli udendo la voce cupa e impressionante del rombo.
'Hear how the witch screeches!' the urchins cried on hearing the deep, unsettling voice of the bullroarer.
Battaglia 1925:200
- Object
- Rectangular or elongated-oval slat, 30-60 cm, cut from the light wood of orange crates, a hole at one end for the whirling cord. On the colle di San Vito, boys whirled a flat stone on a string the same way — Battaglia's 'new and uncommon type of rombo' in which a stone replaces the usual wooden slat.
- Function
- Boys' summer toy, whirled at a run through the streets; its deep voice earned it the district name la striga, 'the witch', and the game itself was called far el vento, 'making the wind'.
- Map confidence
- high - Trieste city centroid; the accounts span several districts (Rozzol-Settefontane, Barriera Vecchia, Cittavecchia, San Vito, Montebello).
- Source location
- printed pp. 197-201
- Toy / secular survival