Bambara N'Domo Lion bullroarer

N'Domo / Lion

Source term: rombo

N'Domo (also N'tomo): the first of the Bambara graded initiation societies, for uncircumcised boys; "Lion" (León) names both the founding bullroarer and the first of the society's ranks.

Etymology. "Lion" (León) names the founding bullroarer for its buzz, said to resemble a lion's roar, and is the first of the N'Domo society's five grades.

The Bambara trace the bullroarer's birth to the hands of the first blacksmith. As a boy, he was carving a mask from sacred acacia when a splinter of the wood broke free and flew off, droning with a sound like the roar of a lion. He called over two companions, took up the fragment, bored a hole through one end, ran a cord through it, and spun it. The three of them became the first N'Domo society, which took its name from that first bullroarer: the Lion. In the Bambara mind, the bullroarer was born in the same moment as the first mask, cut like it from the wood of the sacred tree. The Lion later stood as the first of the N'Domo's graded ranks — Lions, Toads, Birds, Guinea-fowl, Dogs.

Entre los bambara, el emblema de los "Perros" es de notable simplicidad: consiste en un calabacino horadado en toda su superficie al cual se ata una cuerda. Si se hace girar el instrumento por encima de la cabeza, a velocidades variables y por sacudidas un poco a la manera de una honda— produce un sonido que se asemeja al ladrido del perro.

Among the Bambara, the emblem of the "Dogs" is remarkably simple: a small gourd pierced all over its surface, with a cord tied to it. Whirled above the head at varying speeds and in jerks, a little in the manner of a sling, it gives a sound like the barking of a dog.

Jean Servier, El hombre y lo invisible (Spanish trans. of L'homme et l'invisible), p. 121

Particulars

Object

In Bambara tradition the first rhombe was an acacia splinter from the first mask; it gave its name, the Lion, to the first N'Domo society.

Function

Initiation-society origin instrument linked with mask making, sacred acacia wood, and the Lion name of the first N'Domo society.