No. MUS2026-339
Darkwood leaf blade with cord
Australia · Probable Northern Territory
Function not recorded
Source term: Bullroarer
A dark leaf of wood, twenty-five and a half centimetres long, cut with shallow arcs and straight lines, and still carrying its fibre cord at the tip - the working part, and the part that almost never survives. Writing of the Northern Territory, Baldwin Spencer set down the belief he found running through the mainland: the women and children kept away from an initiation were taught that the drone of such an instrument was the voice of a great spirit come to carry the youth away.
Particulars
- Object
- Leaf-shaped darkwood blade, 255 x 60 mm, with terminal fibre cord and shallow line-and-arc incision.
- Function
- Not recorded.
Source
National Museum of Denmark I.7291; wood and fibre cord; 25.5 × 6 cm