Hawaiian O-e-o-e wooden toy bullroarer

O-e-o-e

Source term: bullroarer

O-e-o-e: Hawaiian name recorded by Culin for the wooden toy bullroarer; oeoe is the verb 'to whiz, as a ball or grape-shot through the air', 'to make an indistinct continued sound', and 'to murmur, as a purling brook' (Andrews 1865, p. 85).

Its name was its noise. In Hawaiian, oeoe meant to whiz like grape-shot through the air, or to keep up an indistinct continuous sound, and that is what this end-pierced wooden blade did when it was whirled on its cord. It was a children's toy that informants also called ko-wa-luwa-lu. It belonged to a whole family of island spinning and buzzing playthings recorded in the 1890s: the po-ka-kaa "buzz" of perforated hau bark, the hu-ila-ma-kani wind-wheel of paper or bark cloth, and the hu-o-e-o-e humming tops cut from small gourds. Making sound was the game — each toy a different way to set the air singing.

O-e-o-e: BULLROARER. - This is made of wood, with a hole in one end through which is passed a cord with which it is whirled. It is known to my informants as a toy.

Stewart Culin, 'Hawaiian Games' (1899), p. 220, item 41.

Particulars

Object

End-pierced wooden blade with a whirling cord.

Function

Culin's Hawaiian informants knew it as a toy.