The Bullroarer Atlas

No. ELSCHEK1983-001Europe

Slovak húkadlo, the swineherds’ roarer

Slovakia · Central Europe

Play / practical

A plain pale wooden board pierced at the left end, tied by a short twine to a turned wooden handle.
Plate I. A Slovak húkadlo with its cord and wooden handle. Image source
A pale wooden board with a rounded, narrowed head, its braided red and black cord trailing in loops.
Plate II. A second húkadlo on a braided red-and-black cord. Image source

húkadlo

gondáš = Slovak swineherd.

Slovak swineherds drove their pigs with a whirling board. The húkadlo is a flat slat of wood a hand or two long, its edges sharpened, sometimes notched or painted, on a cord about a metre long. Swung round the head, its edge cuts the air with a hooting, deep, mysterious note that wavers as the swing speeds and slows. The gondáši, the pig-herders, used it to move their animals; boys played with it in the meadows and out at pasture, and swung it to make a sound that frightened.

Particulars

Object
A flat wooden board 10–30 cm long and 5–8 cm wide, sharpened along its edges and tied to a cord of 80–100 cm; the edges may be notched or the board painted.
Function
Swineherds, especially the gondáši, whirled it to drive pigs; boys played with it in the meadows and at herding, or sounded it to make an eerie noise.

Source

Oskár Elschek, "húkadlo", Encyklopédia tradičnej ľudovej kultúry Slovenska (ludovakultura.sk, 2017); after Elschek, Slowakische Volksmusikinstrumente (Leipzig, 1983)

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Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.