Boolpee behind the returning line

Boolpee

Source term: bullroarer

Boolpee: a large bullroarer.

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.

During every night of the sojourn of the boys in the bush, the bullroarer is sounded by one of the men somewhere out of sight.

Mathews 1896, printed p. 129

Particulars

Object

Bullroarers swung on strings; a large one was called Boolpee.

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.