The Bullroarer Atlas

MAT1898-002 - ethnographic attestation

Port Lincoln tribes / Barngarla region

Port Lincoln - South Australia

Restricted

Eyre's plate of the 'Mooyumkarr' (figs. 6–8), incised slats strung on cord with dotted, chevron, and zigzag decoration — the first published...
Representative image. Eyre's plate of the 'Mooyumkarr' (figs. 6–8), incised slats strung on cord with dotted, chevron, and zigzag decoration — the first published illustration of an Australian bull-roarer, of the incised-slat type used in South Australia; not the Port Lincoln people's own witarna or pullakalli. E. J. Eyre, Journals of Expeditions of Discovery (1845), vol. II, Plate IV (figs 6-8) Public domain Image source

witarna / pullakalli English

Source term: bull-roarer

witarna: the larger Port Lincoln (Parnkalla/Barngarla) bull-roarer, an oval wooden board swung on a string to make a deep humming sound; pullakalli is the smaller instrument.

Etymology. Schurmann defines `witarna` as an oval wooden object fastened to a string and swung rapidly to make a deep humming sound. (high confidence)

At the initiation ceremonies of the Port Lincoln tribes on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, the missionary Clamor Schurmann recorded two bull-roarers: a larger one, the witarna, and a smaller, the pullakalli. In his Parnkalla vocabulary the witarna is an oval wooden object fastened to a string and swung rapidly to make a deep humming sound, used chiefly at native ceremonies. R. H. Mathews, drawing on Schurmann's 1846 report, paired the two with the Kamilaroi murrawan and mooniburribean and set down the threat held over the young men: the novitiates were told not to betray what they had seen and heard, or they would be speared, thrown in the fire, or have other dreadful things done to them.

The novitiates were told not to betray what they had seen and heard on such occasions, or they would be speared, thrown in the fire, or have other dreadful things done to them.

R. H. Mathews, "Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales" (1907 reprint, sec. 8, "Bull-roarers used by the Aborigines"), drawing on Schurmann's 1846 report
Function
Schurmann reported larger and smaller bullroarers at Port Lincoln initiation ceremonies, with severe penalties for betrayal.
Map confidence
medium - representative coordinate for named people, ceremony, river, or region in Mathews
Source location
JAI 27:52-60

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