BULLROARER, the English name for an instrument made of a small flat slip of wood, through a hole in one end of which a string is passed; swung round rapidly it makes a booming, hum ming noise. Though treated as a toy by Europeans, the bullroarer has the highest mystic significance and sanctity among primitive people. In Australia it figures in the initiation ceremonies and is regarded with the utmost awe by the "blackfellows." Their bull roarers, or sacred "tunduns," are of two types, the "grandfather" or "man tundun," distinguished by its deep tone, and the "woman tundun," which, being smaller, gives forth a weaker, shriller note. Women or girls, and boys before initiation, are never allowed to see the tundun. At the Bora, or initiation ceremonies, the bull roarer's hum is believed to be the voice of the "Great Spirit," and on hearing it the women hide in terror. A Maori bullroarer is preserved in the British Museum, and in Africa it is known and held sacred. Thus among the Yoruba the principal sign of the Oro secret society is a bullroarer. The sanctity of the bullroarer was very widespread. The rhombus (Gr. poµ13os) which was whirled at the Greek mysteries was one. Among North American Indians it was common. At certain Moqui ceremonies the procession of dancers was led by a priest who whirled a bullroarer. The instru ment has been traced among the Tusayan, Apache and Navaho Indians (J. G. Bourke, Ninth Annual Report of Bureau of Amer. Ethnol. 1892), among the Koskimo of British Columbia (Fr. Boas, "Social Organization, etc., of the Kwakiutl Indians," Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1895), and in Central Brazil. In New Guinea, in some of the islands of the Torres Straits it is swung as a fishing charm. In Ceylon it is used as a toy and figures as a sacred instrument at Buddhist festivals. In Sumatra it is used to induce the demons to carry off the soul of a woman, and so drive her mad. Sometimes, as among the Minangkabos of Sumatra, it is made of the frontal bone of a man renowned for his bravery. With the Ao Nagas, it is apt to bring sickness, while elsewhere in Assam it drives or keeps sickness away.
A. Lang, Custom and Myth (1884) ; J. D. E. Schmeltz, Das Schwirrholz (Hamburg, 1896) ; A. C. Haddon, The Study of Man, and in the Journ. Anthrop. Instit. xix. (189o) ; G. M. C. Theal, Kaffir Folk-Lore; R. C. Codrington, The Melanesians (1891) ; A. B. Ellis, Yoruba-Speaking Peoples (1894) ; N. W. Thomas, Timne Speaking Peoples (1916) ; P. A. Talbot, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, vol. iii. (1926) ; J. P. Mills, The Ao Nagas (1926).