Hackett's four Musgrave–Mann blades

Source term: Bullroarer

In the winter of 1933 Cecil Hackett went out on camels with Norman Tindale and spent two months in the Mann and Musgrave Ranges, travelling with some forty Pitjantjatjara who were moving east to a gathering at Ernabella. On that journey Tindale watched two young men through their initiation. An hour before daylight they rose and set off west with their guardians, swinging bull-roarers, on a long tour of the country beyond the Tomkinson Range, forbidden to speak. Later, camped near Mount Davenport, the party heard the howl of the roarers and saw torches glimmer as the youths came in to a rock hole for water. Every bright fire was dulled, and the women kept their faces down beside them. Four blades came back with Hackett. The best described is pocket-sized at 15.7 centimetres, incised and pigmented, on a brown cord.

Particulars

Object

Incised and pigmented wooden slat, 15.7 cm, with a brown cord.

Function

In the Mann and Tomkinson Ranges, newly circumcised youths set out before dawn on a long bush journey, swinging bull-roarers as they went and whenever they neared a waterhole, while the women kept their faces down so as not to see them.