Widaro kamoa, the spirit itself

takilat (Mopu, general cult-object term); wuyamb (Widaro, general cult category); kamoa (Widaro, proper name)

Source term: Schwirrhölzer

Mopu takilat: belonging to the cult, cult object (not a proper name). Widaro wuyamb: cult apparatus, including flutes, bullroarers and cult dances; kamoa: proper spirit name, no literal translation supplied.

In Widaro, Kamoa was a bullroarer’s own name. Such names named beings: bullroarers and flutes were the spirits themselves, their sounds the voices of particular spirits. The flutes even came in named couples—Sandami and his wife Maida, Samangau and his wife Agadua. In Mopu, takilat named the bullroarer as a cult object; Widaro’s wider word wuyamb embraced flutes, bullroarers and cult dances. A personal name identified who was speaking within this world of sounding beings.

die Geister selbst sind … die Stimme des betreffenden Geistes

are the spirits themselves … the voice of the particular spirit

Wilhelm Tranel, Anthropos 47 (1952), p. 462

Particulars

Object

Bullroarers called takilat in Mopu and kamoa in Widaro.

Function

Cult instrument regarded as the spirit itself and sounded as its voice; Widaro’s bullroarer has the proper name kamoa.