Saint-Hippolyte childhood rhombe

Source term: rhombe

rhombe: French technical/common term for a whirled sounding slat (bullroarer).

In 1969, Louis Martin of Saint-Hippolyte recalled a childhood game: making a rhombe, the wooden slat tied to a string and whirled until it hummed. He had no special name for it, calling it only la petite planche, “the little board.” At eighty-six he could still cut one with his knife, and did. The national folk museum later judged the little board worth copying: a hemp-corded facsimile of Martin's own rhombe, cut to thirty-two centimetres, is preserved in the Mucem.

il jouait, enfant, à fabriquer des rhombes

as a child, he played at making rhombes

Francoralité, Épisode 1: Comptines et jeux d'enfants (Louis Martin, Saint-Hippolyte).

Particulars

Object

Louis Martin described and demonstrated making a rhombe: a shaped wooden slat tied to a string and whirled to sound. His own rhombe was inventoried by the Musée national des arts et traditions populaires as 70.59.1, and a 32 cm hemp-corded facsimile of it made there in 1976 is preserved as Mucem 1976.30.1.

Function

Louis Martin recalled making rhombes as a child: a game, with no ritual, magic, or protective use attached.