The bullroarers' magic

Note 004

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I clearly remember that it was at a popular festival in a village in the Guadarrama mountains, in the north of the community of Madrid, in Spain.

The musical ensemble Mayalde, famous in Castilla and Leon (and surroundings) for their interpretations of the most traditional Castilian music —with a strong emphasis on the use of everyday sound artifacts and peasant music, and with a great sense of humor— was performing. Eusebio Martín, the most visible face of the group, stood in the middle of the stage with a zumbadora. What English-speaking organological sources generically call "bullroarers": an oval piece of wood, tied to a string. Eusebio spoke about the old beliefs associated with the instrument, about its ancient uses, and about how, with the passing of decades and centuries, the element ended up becoming a simple entertainment for children.

He then spun the bullroarer above his head, and the device emitted a low humming sound. "Many of you will think this is a silly child's toy," he said. "But the atavism is still here, in this little piece of wood. If you don't believe me, take this, go out in the middle of the woods, all by yourselves, at midnight, and buzz it. And see if you're not scared shitless..."

Indeed, bullroarers are believed to have had strong magical and ceremonial meanings in the past; among other things, they were used to ward off evil spirits in Europe and Asia. In fact, in some peasant, indigenous and traditional societies around the world they still serve these functions.

In South America they had a notable historical presence. Colbacchini (1925: 32) notes that among the Bororo people of the Brazilian Mato Grosso, bullroarers, which they called aiğe, could be seen only after the men's initiation ceremony. For his part, Nimuendajú (1956: 107) indicates that among the Apinayé people of the state of Tocantins, again in Brazil, their name was megaló, which also meant "dead man's soul."

The great majority of bullroarers in South America used to be performed by tying them to the end of a stick. The size varied, reaching up to one meter in length, and they tended to have very specific characteristics, such as shape —a fish shape was classic among the Apurinã and Nahukuá peoples of Brazil— or color; the red urucú-based nonnogo or the black berago used by the Bororo to dye them were distinctive.

In addition to the indigenous societies mentioned above, bullroarers were traditionally employed by the Baniwa, Embera, Wounaan, Chané, Aba, Curuaya, Timbira, Carayá, Wichi and Caduveo peoples (and are not present, curiously, in the Andes or Patagonia). In all of them, in one way or another, bullroarers had a certain ritual or shamanic significance. As time went by, they lost it, and ended up in the hands of the children...

...as has happened with a good number of other traditional sound artifacts, generally of simple structure and associated with rituals and beliefs that have fallen into oblivion.

Although it is enough to spin a bullroarer and make it groan and growl for a whole mass of atavistic memories and fears of past generations, apparently engraved in our collective memory —ghosts and death, darkness and the forest...—, to revive as if by magic.

As Eusebio, of Mayalde, used to say.

References

Colbacchini, Antonio. I Bororos Orientali "Orarimugudoge" del Matto Grosso (Brasile). Torino: Società Editrice Internazionale, 1925.

Nimuendajú, Kurt. Os Apinayé. Belém de Pará: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, 1956.

This post belongs to a compilation that has been published by El Zorro de Abajo Editora. That publication can be accessed thorugh the section "Articles" at Instrumentarium.

About the post

Text: Edgardo Civallero.

Publication date: 05.10.2023.

Picture: "Bullroarer (Imunu Viki?) | Papua New Guinean". In The Metropolitan Museum of Art [link].