The Bullroarer Atlas

POLY2026-001 - ethnographic attestation

Maori / Aotearoa

New Zealand - Aotearoa - Oceania - Polynesia

Sacred / spirit

Fig. 102 'Four Bullroarers and one Whizzer': Maori bull-roarers (purerehua) A-D (British Museum & Dominion Museum specimens); the small...
Fig. 102 'Four Bullroarers and one Whizzer': Maori bull-roarers (purerehua) A-D (British Museum & Dominion Museum specimens); the small lens-shaped object at the right of photo B is the kororohu whizzer/buzzer, NOT a bull-roarer. Best, Games and Pastimes of the Maori (Dominion Museum Bulletin 8), 1925, Fig. 102 Public domain Image source

purerehua / purorohu / turorohu English / Maori

Source term: purerehua / bullroarer

pūrerehua = "moth/butterfly" (the instrument is named for the moth whose whirring wing-sound it imitates); the synonym rangorango refers to the blowfly, for the buzzing note; turorohu/purorohu are further names for the same bullroarer.

Etymology. The instrument name is tied to wing-sound imitation: `purerehua` is moth/butterfly and also the Maori bullroarer. (high confidence)

In Māori practice the pūrerehua is a strict slat-on-cord bullroarer — a flat oval blade of resonant matai wood (or sometimes whalebone or stone) on a long flax cord and rod, swung overhead until it gives off a deep, eerie roar. It takes its name from the moth, pūrerehua, whose whirring wings the sound recalls; another name, rangorango, likens its buzz to a blowfly. Its great work is calling the rain: a Ngāti Porou expert, Tuta Nihoniho, described whirling the bullroarer while flinging ashes to the south, baring his buttocks to the rainy quarter, and reciting an insulting karakia to provoke the sky. Sounded too at funerals to draw out tears and to lure food and lizards from hiding, the pūrerehua is heard as a voice of Tāwhirimātea's bodiless wind-children — instruments said to carry the player's hopes out on ngā hau e whā, the four winds.

Pūrerehua or turorohu create eerie sounds as they spin on the ends of their cords. Stories are told of them calling rain, summoning tears and even enticing food from hiding places.

Pūrerehua or turorohu create eerie sounds as they spin on the ends of their cords. Stories are told of them calling rain, summoning tears and even enticing food from hiding places.

Flintoff, Te Ara: The family of Papa – rhythmic instruments (Māori musical instruments – taonga puoro, page 3)
Object
Te Aka defines purerehua as a traditional Maori bullroarer made of wood, stone, or bone on a long string; Te Papa holds a wood-and-cord purerehua object; Te Ara records turorohu/purerehua rain and spiritual-wind uses.
Function
Strict slat-on-cord bullroarer/taonga puoro with rainmaking and spiritual-wind associations in direct Maori-focused sources.
Map confidence
medium - Aotearoa/New Zealand regional anchor for pan-Maori direct-source row; not a single findspot.
Source location
Te Aka purerehua entry; Te Ara page 3 'Rainmaker'; Te Papa purerehua object

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