Arumafu red roarers, each man's mark

Source term: bullroarer

Every Arumafu man cut his own mark into his bullroarer and painted it red; upstream in the Yodda Valley the blades were left plain. On the lower Kumusi a roarer's touch was deadly: if one struck a man, he would die. Its roar was a spirit, and boys entering the initiation house went to meet it. One Arumafu boy, Sefa, boasted that he was not scared and meant to fight the spirit. Somehow he was bitten on the finger, and years later, away working on a plantation, Sefa did die, as his people had long expected. When initiation ended the youths were sent out to hunt pigs; as each pig was cut up the men struck at the boys' legs with their axes, so that their axes would never slip in the gardens. Then the roarers' handles were burned and their small blades packed secretly away.

each man makes his own mark on the bullroarer and paints it red

E. W. P. Chinnery and W. N. Beaver, "Notes on the Initiation Ceremonies of the Koko, Papua" (1915), p. 71.

Particulars

Object

Bullroarers painted red, each bearing its maker's own mark.

Function

Swung at boys' initiation as the voice of a spirit; among the lower Kumusi tribes a blow from a bullroarer was believed fatal. At the close of initiation the handles were burned and the blades and strings packed secretly away.