No. MUS2026-102
Solos roarer, voice of the urar
Papua New Guinea · Buka Island, Autonomous Re · Oceania · Sahul
Sacred / spirit
Source term: bull-roarer
Swung in the wapi ceremony, its whir was the voice of the urar — the dead, returning to be heard among the living. Beatrice Blackwood, camped on both shores of Buka Passage in 1929, recorded the rite among the Solos, one of Buka Island's two peoples, and set the roaring slat down as the throat the spirits borrowed. A white-lined figure carved into red-brown wood, kept now in Paris: the sound of a ghost, made by a hand.
Particulars
- Object
- Solos rhombe from Buka Island (Quai Branly 71.1934.188.1425).
- Function
- A musical instrument of the Solos of Buka Island.
Source
Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, 71.1934.188.1425 (Solos rhombe, Buka Island)