The Bullroarer Atlas

HAD1898-029 - secondary catalog

Mabuiag, Torres Strait

Australia - Torres Strait - Melanesia

Weather / fertility magic

Haddon's fig. 237: five models (A–E) of the bigu bull-roarers swung openly by the Mabuiag at turtle-increase ceremonies, each blade slung from...
Haddon's fig. 237: five models (A–E) of the bigu bull-roarers swung openly by the Mabuiag at turtle-increase ceremonies, each blade slung from its stick and cord, from the large leaf-shaped A down to the small teardrop of the secret Muralug wanes at E. Haddon (ed.), Reports Cambridge Anthrop. Exped. Torres Straits IV (1912), Fig. 237 A-D Public domain Image source

bigur / uainis English

bigu and wanes — the large and small western Torres Strait bull-roarers of the Mabuiag turtle fishery. Ray's Mabuiag vocabulary defines the pair by voice — bigu, 'a bull roarer with a low and deep note'; wainis, 'a small bull-roarer with a shrill sound' — and records Eastern Islander bigo as the same word. The name is the sound: in the origin tale kept by the coastal Kiwai across the strait, the first bullroarer cried 'bigu, bigu' and so named itself.

Etymology. Current sources define role and contrast with `bigur`, but not literal etymology. (medium confidence)

On Mabuiag, in the western Torres Strait, the bull-roarer belonged to the turtle fishery. In his expedition report Alfred Haddon described how large painted bull-roarers, bigu, were hung from the agu, the platform of turtle skulls and shells, where they vibrated continually in the wind. Before a canoe set out after floating turtle in the surlal (breeding) season the men took a bigu from the platform and swung it over the canoe, then stood round the agu whirling the large bigu and the small wanes; a skilled performer would lash the wanes backwards and forwards to make it yelp in more than one voice. When the lucky canoes came back in sight, a lookout posted on a hill whirled a small bull-roarer so the women knew the fishers had succeeded, and on the canoes' return the men marched clockwise round the agu, bull-roarers roaring, lest the turtle swim away. Unlike the secret bull-roarers of the men's initiation, this one was no mystery: Haddon noted that women were allowed to see it and that the islanders called it "half-play." The instrument did harder work in the same waters: a "big man" on Moa could raise wind by painting himself black and whirling a wanes, and on Muralug an old man could call up more by whirling a very thin one on a long string from the top of a tree, the sound imitating a gale. The name itself is the instrument's voice: Ray's Mabuiag vocabulary separates the deep-noted bigu from the shrill wanes, and across the strait the coastal Kiwai tell of the first bullroarer whirling up with the cry 'bigu-bigu-bigu' and announcing that as its name.

A performer whirled a bigu many times round his head and a wanes was at first swung in the same manner, but after a few revolutions it was lashed backwards and forwards and was thus made to produce more than one kind of noise.... When the canoes were expected to return a man would station himself on a hill to look out... then he whirled a small bull-roarer and the women knew the fishers had been lucky.

Haddon (ed.), Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, Vol. V (1904), pp. 331-332.
Object
A large bull-roarer (bigu) and a small one (wanes).
Map confidence
medium - representative coordinate for named people, place, or region in Haddon
Source location
pp. 331-332 (bigu/wanes turtle-ceremony bull-roarers; whirled over the canoe and as the lucky-fishing signal); fig. 52 (Pl. XX, fig. 2), A-D bigu, E wanes; wind-raising wanes p. 352

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