Auin ostrich-lure bullroarer, Kaukauveld

An Auin hunter swinging this half-meter blade on its leather cord was not making music — he was setting a trap. Its drone mimicked the call of a cock ostrich, and hunters sounded it to coax the hen off her nest and kill her at close quarters. Dr. Hannemann, the government physician at Gobabis, collected it among the Auin of the southern Kaukauveld in 1909–1910.

Mehr praktische Bedeutung hat das Schwirrholz, ein langes, an beiden Enden zugespitztes Brett, das an einem Faden in der Luft geschwungen wird... Dann gibt es Töne von sich, ähnlich dem Lockruf des männlichen Straußen. Man benutzt es daher häufig auf der Straußenjagd, um das Weibchen aus seinem Nest zu locken und es möglichst aus der Nähe zu erlegen.

Of more practical importance is the bullroarer, a long board pointed at both ends, swung through the air on a cord... It gives off sounds resembling the luring call of the male ostrich. It is therefore often used in the ostrich hunt, to lure the female from her nest and shoot her at the closest possible range.

Gretschel 1913, p. 112

Particulars

Object

Long light-brown wooden board pointed at both ends, undecorated, on a leather cord; GRASSI Leipzig SAf 01862: 52 cm long (115 cm with cord), 6.5 cm wide, 0.9 cm thick; Hannemann collection, before 1910.

Function

Ostrich-hunting decoy.