The Bullroarer Atlas

JENSEN1936-001 - ethnographic attestation

Burji (D'aashi / Daashi)

Burji highlands - southern Ethiopia - Africa

Sacred / spirit

Representative—not this record’s object: East African corded wooden lath, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own object is...
Representative—not this record’s object: East African corded wooden lath, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own object is available yet. © The Trustees of the British Museum (E/Af1909-0513-212) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

Furissa German / Burji term

Source term: Schwirrholz

Furissa: Burji name recorded for the object in its toy-survival phase; no literal gloss recovered

At the annual Omisso festival, whose gathering place rotated among Burji, Alga, and Amarro, the bullroarer once sounded as Furissa. By the 1930s it had crossed into childhood and survived as a toy.

In alten Zeiten wurde bei dem Feste ein Schwirrholz verwandt, angeblich aber nicht, um die Frauen zu verscheuchen; heute dient es nur noch als Kinderspielzeug (Furissa).

In former times a bullroarer was used at the festival, but reportedly not to drive the women away; today it serves only as a children's toy (Furissa).

Jensen and Wohlenberg 1936:145
Object
Bullroarer identified by instrument class; no material, dimensions, cord, perforation, blade shape, mechanics, or object figure is supplied.
Function
Formerly sounded at Omisso, an annual Gada cult festival; by 1934-1935 it survived only as a children's toy. Informants denied that it served to drive women away.
Map confidence
medium - Soyama/Burji administrative-area anchor; not claimed as the rotating Omisso festival site.
Source location
p. 145

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