The Bullroarer Atlas

HAD1898-034 - secondary catalog

Coast Murring

Australia - Southeast

Restricted

Fig. 29: the Yuin bull-roarer mudthi (fig. 1) figured by Howitt (1904) beside the Dieri yuntha (fig. 2) — the Coast Murring are a Yuin group,...
Fig. 29: the Yuin bull-roarer mudthi (fig. 1) figured by Howitt (1904) beside the Dieri yuntha (fig. 2) — the Coast Murring are a Yuin group, and mudji is their name for this instrument. A. W. Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1904), fig. 29 Public domain Image source

Mudji English

Mudthi (also Mudji) — Yuin/Coast Murring name for the bull-roarer; Howitt lists it as the "Yuin bull-roarer, Mudthi" and records the hand-sign for it as a small circling motion of the forefinger.

Among the Coast Murring (Yuin) of the south coast of New South Wales, the roaring of the mudji was the muttering of thunder, and thunder was the voice of Daramulun, the being who first made the Kuringal initiation and ordered the fathers to hold it, and by whom these mudthi were first made. A. W. Howitt's messenger, summoning men to the ceremonies, carried a bull-roarer wrapped in skin and concealed from women and children. Umbara, the tribal bard, gave Howitt the words for what the thunder meant: Daramulun calling on the rain to fall and make everything grow up new. Because the sound was Daramulun's own voice, Howitt recorded, it was of the most sacred character.

The roaring of the Mudthi represents the muttering of thunder, and the thunder is the voice of Daramulun, and therefore its sound is of the most sacred character. Umbara once said to me, "Thunder is the voice of him (pointing upwards to the sky) calling on the rain to fall and make everything grow up new."

Howitt 1904, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 538
Function
Bullroarer is the voice of Daramulun, calling initiated men and thunder/rain for green grass.
Map confidence
medium - representative coordinate for named people, place, or region in Haddon
Source location
pp. 494-496, 538 (Daramulun "first made the Kuringal and the bull-roarer" at pp. 494-96; Mudthi as muttering thunder / voice of Daramulun at p. 538)

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