Akamba (Ukamba) boy's bullroarer

Source term: bull-roarer

A small boy in Ukamba had his own bullroarer: a rough oval slice of wood, its cord threaded through a single hole at one end, spun on its string purely for the noise. Gerhard Lindblom counted it among Kamba children's playthings -- beside peg-tops, calabash-shell wheels, and trundled hoops -- but it was the only one he ever saw in his years among the Akamba: a boy's private roar, unnamed and unceremonious, among a village's ordinary games.

Of the bullroarer I have only seen a single example in Ukamba, used by quite a small boy. It consisted of a pointed oval slice of wood, coarsely cut out, with a cord fixed in a hole at one end.

Lindblom, The Akamba in British East Africa (1920), p. 421.

Particulars

Object

A pointed oval slice of wood, coarsely cut out, with a cord fixed through a single hole at one end; no dimensions given.