HAMBRUCH1908-001 - museum specimen
Aua Island (Durour)
Papua New Guinea - Manus - Western Islands (Aua) - Oceania - Sahul
Play / practical
Source term: Schwirrholz (Spielzeug)
On Aua, children swung a giant bullroarer for the pleasure of its hum. The painted, lance-shaped blade is 130.5 centimetres long—longer than many ceremonial examples—and flies from a branch handle on a single bast-fibre cord. Islanders described the toy as an old part of life on Aua.
Ein letztes Spielzeug und gerade als solches sehr interessant ist das Schwirrholz. Es ist roh gearbeitet, aehnelt aber voellig dem in Melanesien gebraeuchlichen Tombaran... Die Kinder spielen damit und freuen sich an dem summenden Geraeusch.
A last toy, and precisely as such very interesting, is the bull-roarer. It is roughly made, but closely resembles the tombaran used in Melanesia... The children play with it and delight in the humming sound.
Hambruch, 'Wuvulu und Aua,' Mitteilungen aus dem Museum fuer Voelkerkunde in Hamburg XXV (1908), pp. 126-127.
- Object
- Painted lance-shaped wooden blade, 130.5 cm long, tied by a single bast-fibre cord to a branch handle; SMB VI 24552.
- Function
- Children’s toy, swung overhead for its humming sound.
- Map confidence
- medium - Aua Island (Durour) centroid, Western Islands, Manus Province; Hambruch and SMB give the island locality, not an object findspot GPS
- Source location
- Hambruch 1908, pp. 126-127; SMB VI 24552
- Toy / secular survival