The Bullroarer Atlas

BATTAGLIA1925-011 - ethnographic attestation

Boys of Postumia (Postojna) and the nearby countryside

Slovenia - Postumia - Postojna, Carniola - Southeast Europe

Play / practical

Slovenian brnivka folk bullroarer.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Slovenian brnivka folk bullroarer. Image source

Around Postojna, the karst town above the great caves, only the oldest people could still summon the bullroarer when Battaglia asked: a wooden tablet, thirty centimetres by five, once fairly common among the boys and seen whirling in the air in every season of the year. No name for it survived. The last generation to play it had grown old, and the toy was dying with their childhood — caught on paper a few years before it went.

Era abbastanza comune fra i ragazzi, e lo si poteva veder roteare in aria in tutte le stagioni. Lo ricordano pero solo i piu vecchi.

It was fairly common among the boys, and could be seen whirled in the air in all seasons. Only the oldest, however, remember it.

Battaglia 1925:212
Object
Wooden tablet about 30 cm long and 5 cm wide, whirled in the air.
Function
Formerly a fairly common boys' toy, seen whirling in all seasons; by 1925 only the oldest people remembered it.
Map confidence
high - Postojna town centroid.
Source location
printed p. 212

View source Open this point on the interactive map