38 
MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 
Plate XVII. 
Figure 1. 
BULL-ROARER FROM OROKOLO, BRITISH HEW GUINEA. 
668 mm. X 100 mm. Specimen Reg. No.: Q.M. E. 13/219. 
The front is ornamented with the crude figure of a reptile, probably a 
crocodile; the hark is quite plain. “ Attached to a long string on the end of a 
stick and swung round the head, giving forth a loud humming sound, sounded 
to warn the women and children to ‘ clear ? before a dance.” Used by the 
Papuans of the Gulf Division at the Kaiva Kuku Dances. 
Figure 2. 
BULL-ROARER FROM THE MEKEO DISTRICT, BRITISH NEW GUINEA. 
380 mm. X 10 mm. Specimen No. : N.G. 18639. 
Front and back quite plain, spatulate shape, in sheath of bark. This 
specimen is figured in Edge-Partington * as a spatulate with no history, but 
thanks to His Excellency Sir William MacGregor, K.C.M.G., who collected it, 
we now know that it was used by masked men when proclaiming a “ tabu” on 
cocoanuts in their tribe. The sheath is rather significant, and reminds one of the 
Queensland specimens. 
* Edge-Partington : Ethnological Album of the Pacific Islands, third series, August, 
1898, p. 73. 
