The Bullroarer Atlas

MAT1898-007 - ethnographic attestation

Culgoa River tribes

Australia - Culgoa River - Southeast

Restricted

Plate 9, figs. 7 & 8 (shared type): the same bull-roarer form extends to the Culgoa River, where the larger is wuddoolnurran and the smaller...
Plate 9, figs. 7 & 8 (shared type): the same bull-roarer form extends to the Culgoa River, where the larger is wuddoolnurran and the smaller ghidjoolkumbal - the figured objects are Wiradjuri; Culgoa is same-form/different-name. R. H. Mathews, Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales, 1907, Plate 9 figs. 7-8 (shared type) Public domain Image source

wuddoolnurran / ghidjoolkumbal English

Source term: bull-roarer

Culgoa River names for the paired bull-roarers: wuddoolnurran the larger instrument, ghidjoolkumbal the smaller, said by Mathews to be used exactly as the Wiradthuri mudthega and moonibear.

Among the tribes on the Culgoa River the larger bull-roarer was called wuddoolnurran and the smaller ghidjoolkumbal. R. H. Mathews recorded that both were used in exactly the same way as the paired Wiradthuri instruments of the Macquarie and Bogan, the mudthega and the smaller moonibear, the latter sounded at the Burbung ground while the ceremonies of initiation ran their course. The form of the two sizes and the manner in which the string was attached, Mathews wrote, was in use over a large area extending from the Macquarie to the Culgoa, and probably further north. He knew the Culgoa names but described their use only through this equivalence to the Wiradthuri pair, leaving the exact locality regional rather than fixed.

Among the tribes on the Culgoa, the larger instrument is called wuddoolnurran, and the smaller ghidjoolkumbal, and both are used in exactly the same way as the mudthega and moonibear herein described.

Mathews, "Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales" (1907), reprinting "Bullroarers used by the Australian Aborigines," JAI 27 (1898):52-60
Function
Mathews says Culgoa tribes use the same large/small bullroarer form and function as the Wiradthuri mudthega and moonibear.
Map confidence
low_medium - representative coordinate for named people, ceremony, river, or region in Mathews
Source location
JAI 27:52-60

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