The Bullroarer Atlas

EXH2026-048 - ethnographic attestation

Yaraikanna (Yadhaykenu)

Australia - Cape York tip (Somerset hinterland), Queensland - Cape York Peninsula

Restricted

Haddon's own drawing of two painted umbalako swinging from their sticks on long looped cords — the larger iwaika used by initiated men and the...
Haddon's own drawing of two painted umbalako swinging from their sticks on long looped cords — the larger iwaika used by initiated men and the smaller maumata for boys, both made for him by the Yaraikanna at Cape York in 1898. A. C. Haddon, Head-Hunters: Black, White, and Brown (1901), fig. 24, p. 191 — via archive.org Public domain Image source

umbalako / iwaika (large); maumata (small) English

Source term: umbalako (bull-roarer)

umbalako (also iwaika): the Yaraikanna name for the bull-roarer; a small one is maumata.

Etymology. umbalako, also iwaika, is the Yaraikanna name for the bull-roarer of the Cape York tip, recorded by Haddon from tribesmen in 1898: the large instrument of the old men was called umbalako or iwaika, the small one shown to the langa (novices) maumata. No literal meaning is recorded for any of the three names. (high confidence)

When Sarah the waitress carried out a cup of afternoon tea, the four Yaraikanna men deftly hid their bull-roarers; for a woman to see one would be a terrible sacrilege, and there was evident relief when she left. They had come to Thursday Island on a shelling boat in November 1898 and were sent to Haddon and Seligmann by Jimmy Matauri, a Thursday Island policeman of their own tribe. They called the instrument umbalako, promised to make some, and returned with examples 5 1/4 inches long, painted red, black, and white; having brought no cords, they were handed a broken box-lid, a tomahawk, and a knife to finish them. After dark, behind some sheds and not far from a steam merry-go-round grinding away for the Prince of Wales' birthday, they painted themselves and swung the bull-roarers, producing first the ordinary buzzing and then, with a sudden backward-and-forward turn of the hand, a penetrating yelping "Bow-wow!" they said no white man had ever seen before. The instrument was swung for the langa, the secluded initiates, before a front tooth was loosened with a kangaroo bone and a stone and tapped out, the names of the lad's mother's countries called with each blow, the one named as the tooth broke away becoming the land he would belong to. Haddon's later report distinguished a large form for the old men, umbalako or iwaika, from a small one, maumata, for the boys.

They acknowledged having the bull-roarer which they called umbalako, and promised to make some for me.... For a woman to see a bull-roarer would be a terrible sacrilege, and there was evident relief when the unsuspecting Sarah took her departure.

Haddon 1901, Head-Hunters: Black, White and Brown, p. 191
Object
Two size-classes: a large one for the old men (umbalako or iwaika) and a small one (maumata) for the boys.
Function
Initiation-grade instruments distinguished by age-grade (Haddon, Torres Straits Reports V + Head-Hunters: informants 'having the bull-roarer which they called umbalako, and promised to make some for me').
Map confidence
high - Yadhaykenu country, NE Cape York tip
Source location
TS Reports V (leaf 450); Head-Hunters fig. 24

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