Malo's polished laurel-leaf board

Source term: Schwirrholz

On Malo, the island just off the south coast of Espiritu Santo, the bullroarer was a laurel-leaf-shaped board of wood, usually polished smooth by long handling and almost never decorated beyond a few notches beside its narrow eye. Through the eye ran a cord some two metres long, tied to a springy pole that sent it whirling. The same wooden board was so sacred on Malekula and Ambrym that no woman or uninitiated man might see it; on Santo it survived only as a palm-leaf toy. On Malo, where no secret societies were known, it may be the relic of societies long gone.

Particulars

Object

A wooden, laurel-leaf-shaped board, usually polished smooth by use and almost never ornamented beyond a few notches at the eye end; a cord about two metres long is tied to a springy pole that swings it.

Function

Not recorded.