The Bullroarer Atlas

No. POLY2026-011

Pije maguk, the bee

New Caledonia (France) · Hienghène, Province Nord · Oceania · Melanesia

Play / practical

Buck’s construction diagram of the Aitutaki coconut-leaflet patangitangi: a curved leaflet loop above a flat strip, an enlarged tied attachment and the assembled instrument on its cord, labelled A–D.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. A coconut-leaf roarer of the same kind, from Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. Public domain · Image source

maguk

Source term: coconut-leaf whizzer

maguk (Pije): "bee"; the name of the coconut-leaf whizzer.

In the Pije-speaking country around Hienghène, on the north-east coast of New Caledonia, a piece of coconut leaf tied to a string and twirled hummed like a bee, and the toy took the bee's name, maguk. Across the water in Vanuatu the same leaf toy is found. Samoans also named their leaf roarer for a bee, and Javanese children named theirs for the carpenter bee. Each people heard the same insect in the same sound.

Particulars

Object
A piece of coconut leaf on a string.
Function
Twirled to hum like a bee.

Source

The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 9, Australia and the Pacific Islands (1998), "New Caledonia" article, c. p. 679, citing Hans Fischer, Sound-Producing Instruments in Oceania (1983), pp. 196-197; New Caledonia: a travel survival kit (Lonely Planet, 1994), musical instruments section

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Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.