BULL-ROARERS FROM THE BRITISH ISLANDS.

1. Ballycastle, Co. Down; 2. Warwickshire, Staffordshire, and Shropshire; 3. Warwickshire; 4. Montgomeryshire; 5, Derbyshire; 6, 7, 8. Norfolk; 9. Balham (Surrey).

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other rounded. In nearly every specimen the string passes through a hole near one end; but in this example the string is tied in a nick in each side near one end, the opposite half and the free end are alone serrated (10×1, 257 × 47). A model of a Warwickshire type has the ends practically square, but the sides are slightly concave (6x 1 at each end and in the middle, 152 × 44 and 38). Another model, also called "bummer," said to be used in Warwickshire, Staffordshire, and Shropshire, has square ends, and the sides are concave near the string end, and there are four pairs of oblique grooves in the middle (7호 (7×1 and 1 in the narrow part, 190 × 38 and 25). I must confess that I am not satisfied about these two last implements. I have one or two others that were given me by the same friend which vary considerably in form, and had no localities given with them. I reserve these for the present, as I have my doubts about them.

The Rev. Elias Owen, of Oswestry, kindly had a "roarer" made for me as they were used sixty years ago in Montgomeryshire in Wales. Here again we have the East Anglian pattern, but with the ends differently finished off. Although there is a large hole at one end, strangely enough the string is tied through a small hole at the other extremity. (12×21, 311 x64). (Fig. 38, No. 4.)

I have been told that the bull-roarer was known as

a "thunder-spell "* in some parts of Scotland, and in Aberdeen as a "thunder-bolt." Professor Tylor also records it from Scotland. My friend Mrs. Gomme has very kindly allowed me to copy the following from the second volume of her Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1898, p. 291):—

Thun'er-Spell.-A thin lath of wood, about six inches long and three or four inches broad, is taken and rounded at one end. A hole is bored in that end, and in the hole is tied a piece of cord between two and three yards long. It is then rapidly swung round, so as to produce a buzzing sound. The more rapidly it is swung the louder is the noise. It was believed that the use of this instrument during a thunderstorm saved one from being struck with 'the thun'er-bolt.' I [Dr. Gregor] have used it with this intention (Keith). In other places it is used merely to make a noise. It is commonly deeply notched all round the edges to increase the noise.

"Some years ago a herd-boy was observed making one in a farm kitchen (Udny). It was discovered that when he was sent to bring the cows from the fields to the farmyard to be milked, he used it to frighten them, and they ran frantically to their stalls. The noise made the animals dread the bot-fly

* Since the above was in type, Mr. W. S. Laverock, of the Liverpool Museum, has informed me that ". thunner-spells" are quite common in Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire; they were made by farm-servants and villagers. They are usually flat laths, twelve to fifteen inches in length and two and a half to three inches wide; the perforated end was rounded, and the notching varied in amount according to the taste and patience of the maker. They were used with a short string. Mr. Laverock does not know whether the word "spell" means, in this connection, a charm, or the Scottish term for a shaving, the English "spill."

Journ. Anth. Inst., xix., p. 163.

or 'cleg.' This torment makes them throw their tails up, and rush with fury through the fields or to the byres to shelter themselves from its attacks. A formula to effect the same purpose, and which I have many and many a time used when herding, was: Cock tail! cock tail! cock tail! Bizz-zz-zz! Bizz-zz-zz!-Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).

"Dr. Gregor secured one of these that was in use in Pitsligo, and sent it to the Pit-Rivers Museum at Oxford, where it now lies.

"They are still occasionally to be met with in country districts, but are used simply for the purpose of making a noise."

In her first volume, under the title of "Bummers," Mrs. Gomme writes:

"A play of children. 'Bummers'-a thin piece of wood swung round by a cord (Blackwood's Magazine, Aug., 1821, p. 35). Jamieson says the word is evidently denominated from the booming sound produced" (p. 51).

I have only two notices of the bull-roarer from Ireland-one from the town and county of Cork, the other from Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, where the Rev. J. P. Barnes kindly gave me a specimen, which is a long, narrow lath, with straight, smooth sides; the string end is square, but the opposite end is rudely pointed (13× 1, 350 × 25). XI, 350 × 25). (Fig. 38, No. 1.) Its use is very local, but I am informed that the schoolboys in Coleraine often make them. Mr. Barnes writes:—

"From enquiry made, I come to the conclusion that the 'Bull-roarer' (its local name) is not indigenous, but an im

portation. The boy who gave me this says he got the idea from his father, who is a coastguard; his father once tied a string to a piece of wood lying near the fireside, and began to twirl it round for the children's amusement, saying, ' That's what I have seen niggers do in the West Indies.""

This last remark is very suggestive. The form is not like that which I have collected in England, and certainly does more resemble the Oro-stick of West Africa (Fig. 39). It would be a strange circumstance-but not more strange than others that we have already studied — if the dreaded god of vengeance of West Africa should become the plaything of a boy in the north of Ireland.*

Dr. Schmeltz, the Director of the Ethnographical Museum at Leiden, has written a laborious monograph on the bullroarer. He commences by describing a child's toy well known in Germany as the Waldteufel. It is a small cardboard cylinder, open at one end and closed at the other; to the middle of the drum is fastened a horsehair, the other end of which is tied to a piece of wood. When the implement is swung round it makes a horrible sound.

* Since the above was in type I have been informed that “boomers" are in common use among boys in Co. Down. They are notched in various ways, sometimes on one side only; they appear, in fact, to be of very diverse form. Those given to me were made for me, and may not represent the common form of bull-roarer in the north-east corner of Ireland. My informant stated that once when, as a boy, he was playing with a boomer an old country woman said it was a “sacred" thing. It would be worth while to follow up this clue.