The Bullroarer Atlas

EUEXP-003 - secondary catalog

Basel fair-goers (folk survival, unnamed group)

Basel, Switzerland - Central Europe

Play / practical

A wooden board wound with cord at the Pitt Rivers Museum, its paper tag noting an uncertain findspot — a generic European stand-in, since...
Representative image. A wooden board wound with cord at the Pitt Rivers Museum, its paper tag noting an uncertain findspot — a generic European stand-in, since Haddon gives no form or name for the bullroarer he reports seeing at Basel fairs. © Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (acc. 2006.86.1) Image source

Source term: bull-roarer

In his 1898 chapter on the bull-roarer, Alfred Cort Haddon noted that the instrument survived in parts of Europe as a children's toy, and among the places he listed was Basel. Unlike the Black Forest, where a German friend had actually seen one, or West Prussia, where Siedel had recorded the whirling toy in print, the Basel entry rested only on rumor: "I have also heard that it is sometimes seen in fairs at Basel in Switzerland." No example was collected, no local name set down, no date or seller named.

I have also heard that it is sometimes seen in fairs at Basel in Switzerland.

A. C. Haddon, The Study of Man (1898), Ch. X "The Bull-Roarer," p. 285
Object
Bull-roarer reported as sometimes seen in fairs at Basel; no form or local name given by Haddon.
Function
Secular fair/toy item; no ritual function recorded.
Map confidence
low - Basel town coordinate; Haddon names the city as the source place, no findspot detail.
Source location
p. 285

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