The Bullroarer Atlas

No. MUS2026-077

Tojo lelempali leaf bullroarer

Indonesia · Tojo coast, Central Sulawesi · Southeast Asia

Function not recorded

Sara mbele — a paired bamboo bull-roarer from Flores.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. Sara mbele — a paired bamboo bull-roarer from Flores. CC BY-SA 3.0 · Image source

lelempali

Source term: Schwirrholz

lelempali = Tojo name in Juynboll’s catalogue.

The Tojo lelempali was built to live fast: a fresh fig leaf folded into a narrow blade, stiffened with a curved piece of leaf-rib and sent whirring on a plant fibre. At only 12.5 centimetres long, it worked only while the leaf stayed green; once dry, Kruyt reported, it fell silent.

Schwirrholz (lelempali), bestehend aus einem Stückchen Blatt der Ficus Livingstonia, rechteckig gefaltet

Bullroarer (lelempali), made from a small piece of Ficus livingstonia leaf, folded into a rectangle.

Juynboll, Catalogus ... Celebes (1927), p. 55, acc. 1300/39

Particulars

Object
Fresh folded Ficus livingstonia leaf, 12.5 × 2 cm, with a curved leaf-rib attachment and plant-fibre cord.
Function
Whirring leaf instrument; social use not recorded. It sounded only while the leaf remained fresh.

Source

W. R. Juynboll, Catalogus van 's Rijks Ethnographisch Museum: Celebes (1927), p. 55, accession 1300/39, citing Kruyt

View the source

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.