The Bullroarer Atlas

NAGA-007 - ethnographic attestation

Sema / Sumi country

Naga Hills - present Nagaland - South Asia - Northeast India

Play / practical

Sümi hewu with its string attached, Pitt Rivers Museum 1923.84.909.
Sümi hewu with its string attached, Pitt Rivers Museum 1923.84.909. Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (1923.84.909) Image source
Roy's 1928 plate labels item 6 an 11-inch Sema Naga bull-roarer. It is a clear Sema specimen, but not the 1923 Pitt Rivers Museum accession...
Representative image. Roy's 1928 plate labels item 6 an 11-inch Sema Naga bull-roarer. It is a clear Sema specimen, but not the 1923 Pitt Rivers Museum accession behind this row. S. C. Roy, Oraon Religion and Customs (Ranchi, 1928), plate; specimens supplied by J. H. Hutton; scan archive.org dli.ernet.107911 Public domain Image source
Sümi herumu tied by thick string to a long cane handle, Pitt Rivers Museum 1928.69.321.
Sümi herumu tied by thick string to a long cane handle, Pitt Rivers Museum 1928.69.321. Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (1928.69.321) Image source
A second complete Sümi herumu rig, Pitt Rivers Museum 1928.69.322.
A second complete Sümi herumu rig, Pitt Rivers Museum 1928.69.322. Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (1928.69.322) Image source

herumu / hewu English

Source term: bull-roarer

herumu / hewu — Sümi (Sema) Naga names for the bull-roarer, recorded on the PRM specimens

Sümi boys sent the hewu or herumu roaring over cultivated ground to scare birds from the crops — a working instrument of the fields rather than the men's house. Painted derivatives of the same form hung in house doorways to turn away evil spirits, the whirring blade's shape doing protective duty even when it never sounded.

bull-roarer used by boys for scaring birds from crops

Pitt Rivers Museum Annual Report 1923, Accessions by Loan (J.P. Mills, Sema)
Object
Bull-roarer plus painted doorway derivatives, Pitt Rivers Museum. The sounding rigs are PRM 1923.84.909 (vernacular hewu; Henry Balfour coll.) and 1928.69.321-322 (herumu), preserving blades and complete corded assemblies; 1923.84.908 is the painted doorway derivative kept as contextual material.
Function
PRM annual report lists a boys' bull-roarer for scaring birds from crops; separate doorway derivatives are retained only as contextual notes.
Map confidence
medium - Broad Sumi/Sema regional anchor; not Oxford
Source location
1923 annual report | PRM acc. 1923.84.908/909; 1928.69.321-322

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