Horu, the sorcerer's sticks

horu

Source term: bullroarers

horu: "a sorcerer's stick", the bullroarer. marupai: charm, a carved coconut shell. meu haela: "messengers" to the sticks.

In 1996 an old man from Hopaiku, in the Orokolo country of the Papuan Gulf, came to the National Museum in Port Moresby with two bullroarers. He called them horu, "sorcerer's sticks". Each was paired with a marupai, a misshapen coconut shell carved with a face, which he also called meu haela, the sticks' messengers. Together they could kill by sorcery or cure its victims. He had got them from a famous sorcerer at Kavava, and ever since, rival sorcerers had hunted him for their power, driving him to Meii, then to Port Moresby and Lae. Spirits lived in them, he said: with them he could turn into a fish and travel through water, go under the ground, or fly. One pair was weaker. A Harevavo man had tried it, took fright and jumped into the river, and the water had made its magic cold.

two bullroarers, which he called horu (literally, ‘a sorcerer’s stick’)

Sebastian Haraha, "The National Museum as a Haus Tumbuna" (2007), p. 146.

Particulars

Object

Two bullroarers, each paired with a marupai: a misshapen coconut shell carved with a face.

Function

Sorcery: each bullroarer was paired with a marupai charm, its "messenger", and used to kill by sorcery or to cure its victims; the owner said spirits lived in them and let him travel as a fish, underground or through the air.