94 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



(2.) THE "BULL ROARER" OF SOME AUSTRALIAN 



TRIBES. 



In his presidential address to Section G (Anthropology), Mr. 

 A. W. Howitt makes the following reference to the use of this 

 curious instrument : — 



"One of the most remarkable facts brought out by the comparison 

 of initiation ceremonies is the universality of the use in them, or in 

 connection with them, of a wooden instrument, which is a child's toy 

 in England, and which is there known as a "bull roarer." As I 

 remember to have made and used one as a child, it was about eight 

 inches in length by three in width, which when whirled round at the 

 end of a cord caused a loud humming or roaring sound. Throughout 

 Australia, so far as my investigations have extended, it is one of the 

 most sacred and secret objects appertaining to the ceremonies. It is 

 not permitted to women or children, I may say to the uninitiated 

 generally, to see it, under pain of death. The novices were told that 

 if they made it known to women or children their punishment would 

 be death, either by actual violence or by magic. So secret was this 

 object kept among the Kumai, that intimately as I was acquainted 

 with them it was not exhibited to me at their Bora, until the old men 

 had been fully satisfied that I had been present at that of their 

 neighbours, the Murring, and that I had then seen it, had become 

 acquainted with its use, and were convincingly told I had possession 

 of one which had been used in their ceremonies. The reverential 

 awe with which one of these sacred objects is viewed by the initiated 

 when carried round to authenticate the message calling a ceremonial 

 assemby is most striking. I have not observed it merely once but 

 many times, and cannot feel any doubt about the depth of feeling of 

 reverence in the minds of the Aborigines in regard to it. A peculiar 

 sacredness is attached to it from several reasons, among which the 

 principal are that it is taught that the first one was made by the 

 Supernatural Being who first instituted the ceremonies, and the roar 

 emitted by it when in use is his voice calling upon those assembled to 

 perform the rites. It is the voice of Baraine, Daramulun, Mungan, 

 however he may be called in the several languages, but in those tribes 

 with whose ceremonies I have acquaintance he is also more familiarly 

 called ' our father ' The universality of its use, and under the same 

 conditions in world-wide localities, is one of the most puzzling 

 questions in this branch of anthropology, and can only, as it seems to 

 me, point to the extreme antiquity of its use. As I have said, it is 

 used universally in Australia. Its use is recorded at the West Coast 

 of Africa, where it is called ' the voice of Oro.' The Maories, the 

 Zulus, the Navajoes use it in their ceremonies, and it has been 

 pointed out by Andrew Lang that its use in the Dionysiac Mysteries 

 is clearly indicated by a a passage in the scholiast, M. Clemens, 

 of Alexandria. In his interesting chapter on the bull roarer in 

 'Custom and Myth,' Mr. Lang well says that in all probability 

 the presence of this implement in Greek Mysteries was a survival 

 from the time ' when the Greeks were in the social condition of 

 Australians.' " 



