The Bullroarer Atlas

HAD1898-032 - secondary catalog

Kurnai / Gunai

Australia - Southeast

Restricted

Two bull-roarers of the Kurnai (Gunai), figured by Howitt (1904, Fig. 37).
Two bull-roarers of the Kurnai (Gunai), figured by Howitt (1904, Fig. 37). A. W. Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1904), Fig. 37 Public domain Image source

Tundun / Rukut Tundun English

Tundun: the larger Kurnai bull-roarer, "the man," named for the son of the All-Father Mungan-ngaua. Rukut-Tundun: the smaller, "the woman," his wife. Jeraeil: the male initiation in which they are revealed.

Etymology. "The man," the larger of the two Kurnai bull-roarers; also called "Grandfather" (Wehntwin) or Muk-brogan, "Arch-Companion." Named for Tundun, son of the All-Father Mungan-ngaua, who made the instruments bearing his own and his wife's names. (high confidence)

Among the Kurnai of Gippsland, the men in charge of the boys at the Jeraeil told them they were about to be shown their grandfather. What they were shown was the Tundun, the larger of two bull-roarers, "the man"; the smaller blade was the Rukut-Tundun, "the woman," his wife. A. W. Howitt, who learned of the Tundun from the old men and afterwards revived and witnessed the ceremony himself, recorded that the novices were finally told to take the Tundun in hand and sound it, which they did "with evident reluctance and apprehension." The order of things rested on a secret kept from women on pain of death. Behind it lay a myth: Mungan-ngaua, "Our Father," had a son named Tundun who made the instruments bearing his own and his wife's names, and Mungan instituted the Jeraeil. When someone impiously revealed its secrets to women, Mungan sent his fire, the Aurora Australis, across the whole sky; men went mad and speared one another, the sea rushed over the land, and nearly all mankind was drowned. Of the survivors, Tundun and his wife became porpoises, and Mungan withdrew to the sky. An older telling, set down by Fison and Howitt in 1880, gave the danger in miniature: some Kurnai children found a turndun, took it home and showed it to the women, "and immediately the earth crumbled away, and it was all water, and the Kurnai were drowned." Two such bull-roarers were collected from the Kurnai by Howitt himself.

Some children of the Kurnai in playing about found a turndun, which they took home to the camp and showed the women. Immediately the earth crumbled away, and it was all water, and the Kurnai were drowned.

Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai (1880), p. 268, quoted in Andrew Lang, Custom and Myth, "The Bull-Roarer"
Function
Two bullroarers revealed in Jeraeil initiation; Tundun's voice frightens women and children and is tied to a deluge warning myth.
Map confidence
medium - representative coordinate for named people, place, or region in Haddon
Source location
pp. 493-494 (Mungan-ngaua, his son Tundun, the two instruments, the deluge, the porpoises); pp. 628-631 ("showing the grandfather," the two bull-roarers Tundun and Rukut-Tundun, novices sounding the Tundun)

View source Open this point on the interactive map