Page:Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales.djvu/34

Rh the larger instrument is called wuddoolnurran, and the smaller ghidjoolkumbal, and both are used in exactly the same way as the mudthega and moonibear herein described.

Fig. 9.—This drawing represents the gonnandhakeen of the tribes scattered over the country between the Hunter and Macleay Rivers in New South Wales. It is used at the Keeparra and Dhalgai ceremonies in the manner described in my paper on the "Keeparra Ceremony of Initiation." The instrument illustrated is made of ironbark, and is 15½ inches in length, and 3 7/16 inches broad. It is 7/16 of an inch through the thickest part, a cross-section of which is given in Fig. 10. There is a hole at the narrow end of the instrument for the insertion of the string.

Fig. 11 shows the mooroonga of the tribes occupying the Shoalhaven River and south-east coast of New South Wales, and is used at their initiation ceremonies in the way described in my paper on the Bunan. The drawing shows a mooroonga, made of stringybark wood, 13 inches long, 2 7/16, inches wide, and 5/16 of an inch thick. In the smaller end is a hole for the string, and at the wide end there is a large triangular-shaped notch cut out of the wood, a peculiarity I have also observed in the bull-roarers (mundjeegong) used by the Wiradthuri tribes located on the upper Murrumbidgee River.

Fig. 12 represents the dhooanbooka or yoolundry, the bull-roarer in use among the Clarence and Richmond River tribes and those of adjacent districts. Its length is 1 ft. 11½ in., the breadth slightly over 4½ inches, and its greatest thickness about ¾ of an inch. Its form differs from any of the others shown on the plate, by having a nick cut in the small end for the purpose of facilitating the attachment of the string. One side of the instrument is of the usual convex form, whilst the opposite side is slightly hollowed or concave, as illustrated by a cross-section through the widest part of the instrument (Fig. 15). On the concave side is a shallow hole or pit about ⅛ of an inch deep, above which are several transverse lines, extending almost the whole width of the instrument. Along the median axis of the convex face of the bull-roarer are about half-a-dozen V-shaped devices, with the apices pointing towards the larger end, and on each side of these marks are one or more rows of dots. As the large and small bull-roarers used h the tribes mentioned are both marked in a similar manner, the carving on the convex side of the dhalguñgun is shown in Fig. 13, in order to save giving duplicate drawings of each instrument.

Fig. 13 is a drawing of the dhalguñgun, or small bull-roarer, equivalent to the moonibear (Fig. 8), and is used by the same tribes as in the case of Fig 12. The instrument illustrated is 5 inches in length, nearly an inch in breadth, and 3/16 of an inch in thickness, and is made of myrtle wood. The handle and string attached to it when in use are somewhat shorter than those attached to Fig. 8. It is likewise rounded on one side and slightly hollowed on the other, as in Fig. 15, and has the same characters carved upon it as the larger instrument.

In some of the bull-roarer's which have a nick or notch in the end to which the string is attached (as in Figs. 12, 13), there are also a few small projections, somewhat resembling the teeth of a saw, on both edges of the instrument, about on a level with the hole, or slightly in advance of it. When the string or sinew is passed through the hole, it is also twisted round the bull-roarer, and the raised teeth referred to prevent its slipping, and make the fastening more secure.