No. RIDLEY1875-001
Dhurumbulum, the sight that makes men
Australia · Burburgate · Namoi River near Gunnedah, New South Wales · Southeast
Restricted
dhūrumbulum
Source term: stick or wand; sacred wand
dhūrumbulum: the sacred Bora implement that Billy Murri Bundar said Baiame gave his people.
At the Bora the old men waved the dhurumbulum in sight of the candidates, and the sight alone made them men. Billy Murri Bundar, a very old man of Burburgate on the Namoi, told William Ridley this “as a great favour”: others had withheld it as too sacred for a white man. The wand was Baiame’s gift, Billy said, and Baiame had commanded the Bora; it would go on throughout the country, because its ground was his. Six hundred miles away at Twofold Bay, another man told Ridley that Dhurumbulum was the name of the Creator of all things.
the sight of this wand as waved by the old men in sight of the candidates imparts manly qualities.
William Ridley, Kámilarói, and Other Australian Languages (1875), p.156
Particulars
- Object
- Bullroarer, described to Ridley as a sacred stick or wand, waved by elders before Bora candidates.
- Function
- Exhibited and waved before Bora candidates to impart manhood; regarded as Baiame’s gift.
Sources
- William Ridley, “Report on Australian Languages and Traditions,” JAI2 (1873), pp.269–270 View · archived
- William Ridley, Kámilarói, and Other Australian Languages, 2nd ed. (1875), pp.140–141,153,156 View · archived
- R. H. Mathews, “Bullroarers used by the Australian Aborigines,” JAI27 (1898), pp.55–56 View