A spirit's voice at circumcision festivals

Source term: Schwirrholz

The harder the rod was swung, the louder the spirit called. In the Witu Islands — the French Islands of German New Guinea — a thin lance-shaped blade about the length of a forearm flew in circles on some three metres of cord, tied to a whippy rod of four or five metres. At circumcision festivals its hum was taken for the voice of a spirit that women were forbidden ever to see; between festivals the blades were stowed carefully in the men's houses, out of women's sight. On Ghulu Island, the Kakaparagha ritual began its public turn with two bullroarer signals: the second sent the Miri singers and dancers out, sometimes for a boy's circumcision, sometimes to honour a dead elder. Parkinson, who spent thirty years in the archipelago, never saw one ornamented: a plain working blade carried the voice.

Charakteristisch ist ferner für diese ganze Gegend des westlichen Neupommerns, daß bei den Beschneidungsfestlichkeiten das Schwirrholz eine bedeutende Rolle spielt und wie in Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land und auf Bougainville als die Stimme eines Geistes angesehen wird, dessen Anblick den Weibern auf jeden Fall verboten ist.

Characteristic, further, of this whole region of western New Pomerania is that at the circumcision festivities the bullroarer plays a major role and, as in Kaiser Wilhelm Land and on Bougainville, is regarded as the voice of a spirit whose sight is in every case forbidden to the women.

Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee (1907), p. 640 (section 'Masken von den Französischen Inseln').

Particulars

Object

Thin lanceolate wooden blade, 24-30 cm long and 4-5 cm wide, on a single cord about three metres long tied to a rod of four to five metres; swung in circles, never seen ornamented.

Function

Sounded at circumcision festivals as a spirit's voice; on Ghulu two bullroarer signals opened the Kakaparagha rite, the second sending the Miri dancers out. Kept in the men's houses, out of women's sight.