No. TINDALE1974-001
Potaruwutj mimikur talking-tree bullroarer
Tatiara · Naracoorte-Bordertown district · South Australia
Sacred / spirit
mimikur
Source term: wooden bull-roarer
mimikur: Potaruwutj bullroarer; katal: talking tree
Dongaganinj kept his wooden mimikur hanging in a talking tree whose rubbing branches carried news from far away. The Potaruwutj magician could speak a man's name to the bullroarer in the tree and make him fall ill or die: an instrument suspended between distant knowledge and danger.
He had a wooden bull-roarer or mimikur that he kept suspended in a katal or 'talking tree'.
Tindale 1974:35
Particulars
- Object
- Wooden bullroarer kept suspended in a katal or talking tree; no cord, hole, dimensions, blade shape, active whirling, or object figure is supplied.
- Function
- Dongaganinj kept it in a talking tree whose chafing branches brought news; speaking a man's name to the mimikur could make that person ill or kill him.
Source
Norman B. Tindale, Aboriginal Tribes of Australia (Canberra: ANU Press, 1974), p. 35