Sagada (Northern Kankanay / Lepanto-Bontok Igorot)

bawengweng

bawengweng (Sagada Igorot / Northern Kankanay): the bullroarer.

In the Cordillera highlands of northern Luzon, the Sagada Igorot — the northernmost of the Northern Kankanay (Lepanto-Bontok) — gave the name bawengweng to a bullroarer. It shared the village's music with brass gongs, a stone that rings when struck, and flutes blown through the nose or made from rice stalk. In these mountains, where so much of the bullroarer's older mystery has fallen away, the whirled slat survives chiefly as a noise-maker in the hands of children.

bawengweng, a wooden toy on the end of a string swung around to make a noise, a bull-roarer

E. Arsenio Manuel, "Toward an Inventory of Philippine Musical Instruments," Asian Studies 14, no. 1 (1976): 20 (after Scott 1957).

Particulars

Object

A flat wooden slat tied to the end of a string and whirled to make a roaring or humming noise.

Function

A children's whirled wooden toy that produces a roaring/humming sound; no ritual use recorded.