Dhülpaka at the tooth-striking

dhülpaka

Source term: bullroarer, dhülpaka

dhülpaka: the bullroarer of the Wonggumuk. Wonggumuk: the initiation ceremony of the Campaspe, Loddon and lower Goulburn tribes. dhirra: the wooden punch used to knock out the tooth; lillena: the mallet.

On the Campaspe, Loddon and lower Goulburn rivers, a boy lost a front tooth to the sound of the dhülpaka. A man of a stranger tribe held him from behind while another set a wooden punch against an upper incisor and struck it with a mallet. When the tooth came out the men shouted "Wir-r-r!", and the boy had to swallow the blood. All the while the bullroarer hummed in the nearby bush, out of sight. Then came days of performances in the bush, many of them absurd or obscene, at which the boys were forbidden to laugh or speak. Only at the end was the dhülpaka itself shown to them, with a warning that telling women or the uninitiated anything of the rites meant death. An uncle kept the tooth, and in time gave it back.

During these proceedings, a bullroarer, dhülpaka, is sounded in the adjacent bush, but out of sight of the boys.

R. H. Mathews, “Some Initiation Ceremonies of the Aborigines of Victoria,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 37 (1905), p. 874

Particulars

Object

A bullroarer called dhülpaka.

Function

Sounded in the bush, out of the boys' sight, while each novice's upper front tooth was knocked out; after the performances in the bush it was shown to the novices, who were warned never to reveal any part of the rites to the uninitiated or to women, on pain of death.