Wisa'ka
25-03-2012, 02:12 PM
What is commonly known as the bull roarer is another noise making instrument that has been used by humankind all over the world from prehistory into modern times.
Consisting of a flat, oval piece of wood, bone, stone or antler, carved to taper at both ends and sides, it was often notched, grooved and painted with various patterns serving as symbolic markings and giving this instrument different sounds while twirling it by an attached cord.
Bull Roarers have magical properties and such carvings and painted designs contributed to such properties. Some were used as magical weapons.
For some the bull roarer’s sound is the voice of spirits, ghosts of ancestors, or of the person or tribe to whom it belongs. They can be used to summon spirits and help to sway weather conditions. Some Australian tribes use the bull roarer in their coming into manhood rituals. Women twirled bull roarers as well, but all over the world, women's are usually smaller than those of men, some sounding like the buzzing of bees. Although still twirled by some American Indians, much of the bull roarer’s magical properties have been forgotten in North America except by a few medicine people.
One that I made early on will never be twirled again after only one twirling. A case of youthful inexperience and the near tragic misfortune of calling in something in that was rather powerful and scary.
Consisting of a flat, oval piece of wood, bone, stone or antler, carved to taper at both ends and sides, it was often notched, grooved and painted with various patterns serving as symbolic markings and giving this instrument different sounds while twirling it by an attached cord.
Bull Roarers have magical properties and such carvings and painted designs contributed to such properties. Some were used as magical weapons.
For some the bull roarer’s sound is the voice of spirits, ghosts of ancestors, or of the person or tribe to whom it belongs. They can be used to summon spirits and help to sway weather conditions. Some Australian tribes use the bull roarer in their coming into manhood rituals. Women twirled bull roarers as well, but all over the world, women's are usually smaller than those of men, some sounding like the buzzing of bees. Although still twirled by some American Indians, much of the bull roarer’s magical properties have been forgotten in North America except by a few medicine people.
One that I made early on will never be twirled again after only one twirling. A case of youthful inexperience and the near tragic misfortune of calling in something in that was rather powerful and scary.