The Bullroarer Atlas

MAT1898-006 - ethnographic attestation

Wiradthuri / Wiradjuri

Australia - Macquarie and Bogan Rivers - Southeast

Restricted

Plate 9, figs. 7 & 8: the bull-roarers mudthega (large, fig. 7) and moonibear (small, fig. 8) of the Wiradjuri (Wiradthuri) on the Macquarie...
Plate 9, figs. 7 & 8: the bull-roarers mudthega (large, fig. 7) and moonibear (small, fig. 8) of the Wiradjuri (Wiradthuri) on the Macquarie and Bogan Rivers, used in Burbung ceremonies. R. H. Mathews, Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales, 1907, Plate 9 figs. 7-8 Public domain Image source

mudthega / moonibear English

Source term: bull-roarer

Wiradthuri (Wiradjuri) names for the two bull-roarers of the Burbung initiation: mudthega the large instrument, moonibear the small.

Etymology. In the Wiradjuri Burbung myth the All-Father Baiamai, after destroying the boy-devouring being Dhuramoolan, put his voice into all the trees of the forest and split one to make the first mudthega, so that every bull-roarer speaks with Dhuramoolan's voice; Mathews adds that the large instrument is also known outright as booboo and dhuramoolan. The word mudthega itself carries no recorded literal meaning. (high confidence)

The large bull-roarer here, the mudthega, was a slab of brigalow wood nearly fourteen inches long, handed to the surveyor R. H. Mathews by the headman of a Wiradthuri tribe on the Macquarie River, who had used it in the Burbung ceremonies of his people. Its smaller companion, the moonibear, was cut from sandal-wood and swung on a mungal-wood handle some two and a half feet long; Mathews records that it was "sounded at the Burbung ground during the continuance of the ceremonies of initiation." The same pair, under other names, ran from the Macquarie to the Culgoa Rivers. A. C. Haddon, drawing on Mathews's account of the Burbung, noted what became of the mudthega and moonibear once the rite was over: after they were shown and explained to the novices, they were split into pieces and driven into the ground out of sight, or burnt.

Fig. 8 is the small bull-roarer or moonibear used by the same tribes as in the case of Fig 7. It is made of sandal-wood... The moonibear is sounded at the Burbung ground during the continuance of the ceremonies of initiation.

Mathews 1898, "Bull-roarers used by the Australian Aborigines," Journal of the Anthropological Institute 27:52-60
Function
Large mudthega and small moonibear bullroarers used in Burbung ceremonies of Wiradthuri tribes on the Macquarie, Bogan, and other rivers.
Map confidence
medium - representative coordinate for named people, ceremony, river, or region in Mathews
Source location
JAI 27:52-60; Plate figs. 7-8

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