The Bullroarer Atlas

BONNEY1884-001 - ethnographic attestation

Bungyarlee and Parkungi (Bonney's terms)

Australia - Momba Station - Wilcannia - northern River Darling - Oceania - Sahul

Restricted

Bonney's River Darling page names the moola-uncka and places its loud hum beside the secluded initiate; no object image survives.
Bonney's River Darling page names the moola-uncka and places its loud hum beside the secluded initiate; no object image survives. Frederic Bonney, On Some Customs of the Aborigines of the River Darling (1884), p. 127 Public domain Image source

moola-uncka English

Source term: wooden instrument

moola-uncka: local name recorded jointly for the Bungyarlee and Parkungi bullroarer; no literal gloss given

Along the Darling, young men swung the moola-uncka near an initiate secluded in the bush. Its flat oval hardwood blade made a loud hum. Women used the sound to know where the party was and keep their distance, making the instrument part of the social geography of initiation.

They play with a wooden instrument called moola-uncka, which is a flat and oval-shaped piece of hard wood tied to the end of a long piece of twine, which, when whirled in the air, makes a loud humming noise.

Bonney 1884:127
Object
Flat oval hardwood board tied to a long piece of twine, whirled in the air to make a loud humming noise.
Function
Young men sound it for amusement during an initiate's bush seclusion; women who must not approach the youths use the sound to know where they are.
Map confidence
medium - Momba Station fieldwork anchor; Bonney's account spans Bungyarlee country north of Mount Murchison and Parkungi country along the Darling above and below Wilcannia, not one performance site.
Source location
printed pp. 122 and 127

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