PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 319 
with manhood,” or, as Mr. Ridley elsewhere expresses it, “the 
sight of this wand as waved by the old men in sight of the candi- 
dates imparts manly qualities” (j). This sacred wand or stick 
called dhurumbulum, as Mr. Matthews points out (4), is un- 
doubtedly the bull-roarer, the sound of which is believed by some 
New South Wales tribes to be the voice of Dhuramoolan 
(Darumulun, dhurumbulum) himself (7); and among the manly 
qualities which it imparts may very well be the power of pro- 
pagating the species. Another quality supposed to be conveyed 
by the implement may be the deep voice of full-grown men as 
distinguished from the shrill voice of boys under puberty. At 
least it is significant that the voice of Dhuramoolan (Daru- 
mulun), the mythical author of the initiatory rites, is believed to 
be heard in the humming sound of the bull-roarer, and, further, 
that among some Australian tribes boys after initiation are not 
allowed to mix with women until their voices have broken (m). 
It is perhaps some confirmation of the view here suggested of 
the bull-roarer that at certain initiatory rites in Australia and 
New Guinea boys not only see and hear the bull-roarers, but are 
also touched with them (7). Further, it accords with the same 
view of the function of the bull-roarer that a fertilising virtue 
is not uncommonly attributed to it, as my friend, Professor 
A. C. Haddon, has shown in his instructive essay on the sub- 
ject (0). Thus among the Dieri tribe of Central Australia a 
young man at initiation receives a bull-roarer (ywntha), and is 
told to twirl it round his head when he is out hunting; by 
doing so, before his wounds are healed, he is supposed to cause 
a good harvest of lizards, snakes, and other reptiles (7). 
Further, bull-roarers (chwringa) are employed by the Central 
Australian tribes at several of the Intichiuma ceremonies for 
the multiplication of animals and plants (q). When the natives 
of Mabuiag, an island in Torres Straits, went out to catch turtle 
they used to whirl a large bull-roarer over the canal before they 
started, doubtless as a charm to secure.a good catch of turtle (7). 
At the mouth of the Fly River, in New Guinea, the old men 
swing the bull-roarer, and show it to the young men when the 
yams are ready for digging in May and June, and the instru- 
(j) W. Ridley, Kamilaroi and other Australian Languages, pp. 140 sq., 156. 
(k) Journal of the Anthropoloaical Institute, XX VII. (1898), p. 55. 
(1) Jour. Anthrop. Inst. XIII. (1884), p. 447; id., XXIV. (1895), p. 419; id., XXV. 
(1896), pp. 298, 398, 311. 
(m R. H. Matthews, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, XX VI (1897), p. 337. 
(n) R. H. Matthews, ‘‘The Keepara Ceremony of Initiation,” Journal of the Anthrop- 
ological Institute, XXVI. (1897). p. 333; O. Schellong, “Das Barlum-fest der Gegend 
Finschhafens (Kaiserwilhelmsland),’’ Internationales Archiv fiir Ethnographie, II. (1889), 
. 154-160. 
safe A.C. Haddon The Study of Man, ‘‘ The Bull-roarer,”’ pp. 227-327. 
(p) A. W. Howitt, ‘‘The Dieri and other Kindred Tribes of Central Australia,” 
Journal of the Anthropological Institute, XX. (1891), p. 83. 
(q) Spencer and Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 181 sq., 185 sq., 187 sq. 
(r) A. ©. Haddon, ‘‘The Ethnography of the Western Tribe of Torres Straits,”’ 
Journal of the Anthropological Institute, XIX. (1890), p. 406; id., “* Secular and Ceremonial 
Dances of Torres Straits,” Internationales Archiv fiir Ethnographie, V1. (1893), p. 150. 
