The Bullroarer Atlas

PNG153 - ethnographic attestation

Baining

Papua New Guinea - East New Britain - Oceania - Sahul

Restricted

A smooth, reddish-brown Marind bull-roarer from South Papua with a single twisted plant-fibre cord threaded through one end; stands in for the...
Representative image. A smooth, reddish-brown Marind bull-roarer from South Papua with a single twisted plant-fibre cord threaded through one end; stands in for the Baining form, which has no published photograph. Collectie Wereldmuseum (Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen), TM-3303-28, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 4.0 Image source

salecha English

Source term: bullroarer / sacred flute / slit-gong flags

salecha: Uramot (Central Baining) name for the bullroarer, whose whirring is heard as the voice of the Supreme Being Rigenmucha and whose initiation masks are called the 'children of the salecha' (Baining, inland East New Britain; Laufer, Anthropos 41-44, 1946-49, p. 510 and fn. 28).

Etymology. Among the Uramot (Central Baining) of inland New Britain the bullroarer is called salecha, and its whirring is understood as the voice of the Supreme Being Rigenmucha; the masks worn at the boys' initiation are described as the 'children of the salecha'. (high confidence)

The Baining of inland East New Britain hear their supreme being in the bullroarer. Rigenmucha — 'the one who was always there,' bodiless, sexless, never carved as a mask because no one has ever seen him — made all things and the first human pair, and bound the fertility of the Baining to the initiation rites his own voice commands: 'his voice, admonishing and warning, is heard in the whirring of the salecha.' The masks of the great night fire dance are the children of the salecha, beings he called into existence by that voice. At initiation the fathers cover their sons' eyes and lead them between two rows of bullroarer-men; the instruments suddenly howl, the boys learn that men make the drone, and betrayal of the secret to women is punished as the god announces it — 'the salecha kills.' The Baining tell their own version of the widespread origin story: a woman splitting firewood made the first roarer from a whirring splinter and terrified the men, until a man discovered the trick, killed her, and took it for the men's house.

Seine Stimme, mahnend und warnend, wird im Surren der Schwirrhölzer (a salecha) vernommen.

His voice, admonishing and warning, is heard in the whirring of the salecha bullroarers.

Laufer, 'Rigenmucha, das höchste Wesen der Baining,' Anthropos 41-44 (1946/49), p. 510
Object
bullroarer occurrence; bullroarer use
Function
The salecha's whirring is the voice of the supreme being Rigenmucha, sounded in male initiation and the night fire dance; masks are its 'children'; death penalty for betraying the secret to women
Map confidence
medium - alias_area
Source location
Table 1, row 153

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  • SulkaPapua New Guinea - East New Britain - Restricted
  • Gazelle: GeneralPapua New Guinea - East New Britain - Play / practical
  • MengenPapua New Guinea - East New Britain - Sacred / spirit
  • Ramuaina / Duke of York IslandPapua New Guinea - East New Britain - Function not recorded
  • TolaiPapua New Guinea - East New Britain - Play / practical
  • FinschhafenPapua New Guinea - Morobe - Restricted