Kogi seibuká, the boys’ plaything

seibuká

Source term: seibuká (das Schwirrholz)

seibuká — Kágaba (Kogi) name for the bullroarer, containing the root ibusi "to sling, throw" (Preuss cites it, with sibuká "the one spinning a thread," to etymologize ábukaj, the powder packet "that throws out the powder").

Etymology. Preuss finds the root ibusi, "to sling, throw," in seibuká.

Gauteovan, the Kágaba Mother of Fire, was mother of the sun, rain, rivers and thunders, of dance and songs, festival implements, temples and all things. Future máma priests spent nine years in dark seclusion, avoiding salt and learning sacred songs; some trained for twice nine years. The boys had an instrument of their own: the seibuká, a whirling plaything whose name contains a root meaning “to hurl.”

Wird nur von Knaben benützt.

Used only by boys.

Preuss, "Forschungsreise zu den Kágaba-Indianern," Anthropos 14–15 (1919/20), p. 1049 n. 1

Particulars

Object

Bullroarer.

Function

Boys' plaything.