The Bullroarer Atlas

NAGA-009 - museum specimen

Konyak Naga / Wakching

Nagaland - Mon District - Wakching - South Asia - Northeast India

Weather / fertility magic

A flat bamboo slat from Wakching itself, narrowest where its fibre cord winds onto a small wooden toggle and widening toward the far, heavily...
A flat bamboo slat from Wakching itself, narrowest where its fibre cord winds onto a small wooden toggle and widening toward the far, heavily marked end, painted with diagonal strokes and crosses — the class of instrument twirled there to summon rain. Weltmuseum Wien (VO 126758) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

Source term: Bullroarer

Among the Konyak Naga of Wakching, in the Mon District hills of Nagaland, a flat piece of wood that widens toward one end and trails a fibrous cord was whirled to make rain. Spun on its cord it gives off a humming sound, and the Cambridge catalog records its purpose plainly: rain-making. Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf collected it at Wakching during his 1936-1937 fieldwork among the Konyak; it entered the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology as object 1937.1086. The Konyak name for the instrument was not written down.

When twirled around on its cord it produces a humming sound. Used for Rain-making.

Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, object 1937.1086
Object
Flat wooden bullroarer widening toward the end with attached fibrous cord; twirled on its cord to produce a humming sound.
Function
Used for rain-making, per the Cambridge MAA catalog record.
Map confidence
medium - Wakching village/area representative anchor in Mon District; not an exact findspot.
Source location
MAA 1937.1086

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