The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-077 - museum specimen

Tojo

Indonesia - Tojo coast, Central Sulawesi - Island SE Asia

Function not recorded

Representative—not this record’s object: an Orang Darat kitiran from Belitung, Indonesia.
Representative—not this record’s object: an Orang Darat kitiran from Belitung, Indonesia. Världskulturmuseet, Göteborg / SMVK (1935.16.0040) CC BY 4.0 Image source

lelempali German / Dutch catalogue

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
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.
Map confidence
high - approximate culture/locality centroid
Source location
Juynboll 1927:55, acc. 1300/39

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