MATHEWS1896-001 - ethnographic attestation

Boolpee behind the returning line

Australia - New England Tableland, Moonbi–Ben Lomond–Walcha–Bundarra - Inverell belt - Oceania - Sahul

Restricted

Through the New England Burbung the bullroarer set the tempo of the whole gathering. On the tableland from Moonbi to Ben Lomond, a single man sounded one every evening after dusk and again before daylight beside the main camp; the men raised a shout in unison and the elderly women sang and beat their rugs in accompaniment. Messengers carried one to summon each camp, swinging it quietly at evening until the old men began to sing 'Birr! birr!' and came out to fetch them in. On the night the boys were taken, two men worked the instruments along the path between the two cleared rings while rugs went over the novices' heads and the women lay covered in bushes. Weeks later, blankets were lifted off the boys' faces as two men swung bullroarers and the elders threatened them with death if they ever told; and a large one, Boolpee, sounded at the rear of the procession coming home.

A large bull roarer, Boolpee, would be sounded in the rear by one of the goomat men as this mob approached.

Mathews 1896, printed p. 132

Object

A large bullroarer named Boolpee, sounded behind the returning procession; the instruments used earlier in the rite are not physically described.

Function

Sounded morning and evening at the ceremonial camp, carried as the messengers' summons, covered the taking and the revelation of the novices, answered the goomat envoys, and announced the procession's return to the women's camp.

Source

R. H. Mathews, The Burbung of the New England Tribes, New South Wales, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 9 n.s. (1896), 120-136

Source location

printed pp. 128-132

Source confidence

medium to high Representative centre of Mathews's explicitly described New England belt; not an exact ceremony site.

• Initiation rite
• Forbidden to women

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