EXH2026-006 - secondary catalog
Nordeste Brazil folk rói-rói (zunidor)
Brazil - Nordeste (sertao); sold at feiras across the region - South America
Play / practical
roi-roi (Nordeste) / zunidor (Rio de Janeiro) / berra-boi / sonidor / zumbidor Portuguese
Source term: zunidor (aerofone livre rodopiante)
Onomatopoeic Portuguese folk names for the whirled board — rói-rói in the Nordeste, zunidor ("buzzer," from zunir, to whir) in Rio de Janeiro, with sonidor, zumbidor, and berra-boi ("ox-beller") alongside.
Etymology. Portuguese folk name built on `berrar`, to bellow; in this source cluster it names the swung-board bullroarer sense, not the friction-box homonym. (high confidence)
In the open-air markets of the Brazilian Northeast the whirled board is sold as a children's toy: a slim oblong board, roughly 41 by 9.5 centimeters, painted with natural pigments and tied to a single cord, that hums when swung overhead. Câmara Cascudo, cataloguing it in his Dicionário do Folclore Brasileiro, sorts its names by region: in the Nordeste it is the rói-rói, while zunidor is its name in Rio de Janeiro; sonidor, zumbidor, and berra-boi run alongside, several of them onomatopoeic for the lowing of an ox or the creak of an ox-cart. The name berra-boi is shared with a wholly different market instrument, a friction box of clay and cardboard sounded by a caroá cord rubbed with pitch and beeswax, so only the swung board belongs here. Cascudo records its use during Holy Week and the Encomendação das Almas, the nighttime soul-commendation in which penitents pass through houses, cemeteries, and crossroads asking prayers for the dead.
No Nordeste do Brasil vê-se muito em feiras e tem diversos nomes: rói-rói, sonidor, zumbidor, zunidor.
In the Northeast of Brazil it is seen a great deal at the markets and goes by various names: rói-rói, sonidor, zumbidor, zunidor.
MUSIS organology reference, s.v. "berra-boi"
- Object
- Single oblong board c. 41 x 9.5 cm, painted with natural pigments, on a single cord, whirled.
- Function
- Folk toy/noisemaker sold in open-air markets (feiras); no ritual function recorded.
- Map confidence
- medium - Nordeste interior region centroid (region-level only)
- Source location
- musis.pt/zunidor + /berra-boi
- Toy / secular survival