Page:Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales.djvu/33

Rh to understand more thoroughly the copious written details of description. Those who wish to become more fully acquainted with all the uses to which the bull-roarer is applied by the Australian tribes can obtain all the necessary information by a perusal of the several papers on Initiation Ceremonies contributed by me to various journals.

Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4.—These drawings show the two sides and cross-sections of a bull-roarer used by the aborigines of the Oscar Ranges, Kimberley district of West Australia, courteously lent to me by Mr. W. W. Froggatt. The length of the instrument is 22 15/16 inches, its breadth at the widest place 2½ inches, and its thickness 7/16 of an inch. There is a hole in one end for the string used in swinging it. One side is convex, and the other flat, a peculiarity I have before observed in bull-roarers from West Australia. Fig. 1 represents the drawings on the convex face; Fig. 2 those on the flat face; Figs. 3 and 4 being cross-sections at the widest part. I was unable to ascertain the name of the wood out of which it is made.

Several bull-roarers which I have seen from the Kimberley district were flat on one side, which was more or less elaborately carved into rectangles, ovals, and various patterns by means of straight or zig-zag lines, both with the grain of the wood and across it; the other side was slightly rounded, and had no carvings upon it.

Figs. 5 and 6.—The bull-roarer, murrawan, here shown was given to me by a Kamilaroi tribe on the Weir River, Queensland, and was used in mustering the tribes to attend a Bora at Tallwood, at which I was present. It is nearly 11½ inches long, 2⅛ inches wide, and 6/16 of an inch thick. It is made of mulga wood, and has six notches on each edge, not quite opposite each other, with a hole in one end for the insertion of the string. The instruments used at the Bora ring in the principal parts of the ceremonies were much larger than this one, being about 18 or 20 inches long, and made of belar wood.

A small bull-roarer, called mooniburrigean, similar in shape to Fig. 14, is also used at the Bora of the Kamilaroi tribes.

Fig 7.—This drawing represents the bull-roarers, mudthega, used by the Wiradthuri tribes on the Macquarie, Bogan, and other rivers. It was given to me by the headman of a tribe on the former river, and was used in the Burbung ceremonies of his tribe. It is made of brigalow wood, and is nearly 13¾ inches long, 2½ inches wide, and 7/16, of an inch thick. A cross-section through the widest part would be similar to Fig. 6, but correspondingly larger. A string is fastened over the small knob at the tapering end, in the same way that a whip is fastened to its handle.

Fig. 8 is the small bull-roarer or moonibear used by the same tribes as in the case of Fig 7. It is made of sandal-wood, its length being 5 11/20 inches, its breadth 4/5 of an inch, and its greatest thickness 3/16 of an inch. The string and handle attached thereto, when given to me by the natives, were of the following measurements: the handle, made of mungal wood, 2 ft. 7 in. long, and the string attached to it 2 ft. 8 in. in length. The moonibear is sounded at the Burbung ground during the continuance of the ceremonies of initiation.

The form of the bull-roarer used in Figs. 7 and 8, representing the large and small kind, with the manner in which the string is attached, is in use over a large area, extending from the Macquarie to the Culgoa Rivers, and probably further north. Among the tribes on the Culgoa,