Igbue, the harvest spirit

Source term: nach Beschreibung der Töne anscheinend Schwirren

Igbue is the visiting spirit and the ceremony’s name; Frobenius supplies no local name for the inferred bullroarers.

At harvest time, the men announced that Igbue would visit the village that night. Women and children withdrew into their houses while the men moved about sounding the spirit’s presence. Earlier that day the participants, men in their prime, had sacrificed goats in the bush, smeared a calabash with their blood and eaten together. The ceremony was meant to protect the farms, ward off disease and promote fertility.

Masken werden dabei nicht gebraucht, wohl aber nach Beschreibung der Töne anscheinend Schwirren.

Masks are not used in it, but apparently bullroarers are, judging by the description of the sounds.

Leo Frobenius, Volksdichtungen aus Oberguinea I (Atlantis XI, 1924), p. 265

Particulars

Object

Bullroarers inferred from descriptions of the sounds at the nighttime visit of Igbue; form and material unrecorded.

Function

Harvest-time protection of farms, health and fertility, with women and children indoors during the spirit’s nighttime visit.