26 
MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 
* In Bull. 11, North Queensland Ethnography, Dr. Roth also figures two 
whirlers from Butcher’s Hill used in rendering a baby ‘ 4 tabu.” The use of such 
an implement for purposes of this kind is not universal. 
With regard to the British New Guinea Bull-roarers I have little to say. 
Apparently social conditions and ceremonial life do not demand the use of such 
an implement, except rarely; as Mr. Douglas Rannie has pointed out to me,, 
in those islands of the Pacific where most of the ceremonies take place in the 
“tabu” or “Carnal” houses no sacred implements such as the Bull-roarer are 
necessary, since no women or children would ever dream of going near such an 
abode of the mystic rites, and hence the sounding of the whirler would be 
superfluous. This is doubtless also the case among the Papuans of British New 
Guinea, except where ritual dances and observances are held out of doors, when 
the Bull-roarer is swung to render the ceremonial ground tabu to females. 
t Seligman speaks of bull-roarers in use in Southern Massim at the 
Walaga Feast, but, since these are used on this occasion only and have no 
apparent utility, one is rather inclined to regard them as a dying relic of the 
past. 
For the remainder the specimens will speak for themselves. 
* W. E. Roth: North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 11; Records of the- 
Australian Museum, vol. vii., No. 2, 1908. 
f Dr. Seligman: The Melanesians of British New Guinea, 1910, p. 592. 
