Why was the didgeridoo invented?

This thought came to mind about a month ago when I found out that clicking sticks were not originally musical instruments, but were used by women to pass secret messages to their menfolk. Such as when the menfolk were being held prisoner.

For a nomadic race, carrying a didgeridoo around would be an unwanted burden. And leaving it behind for half a year it would get eaten by termites.

The similarity of the didgeridoo to the alphorn cannot be denied. But that begs the question of why the alphorn was invented? The alphorn evolved into the bugle, which was use to rally troops. But whereas a bugle is easy to carry, an alphorn is not.

If I remember correctly, the didgeridoo was not found all over Australia prior to white arrival, but was limited to the north. Which tentatively suggests that it could have been an alternative to smoke signals. Smoke signals were used by aboriginal people throughout much of the country. Perhaps the didgeridoo needed to replace the smoke signal in country where smoke signals couldn’t be lit (too wet) or were too heavily forested for smoke signals to be seen?

I had my doubts about aboriginals using smoke signals to any great extent in Australia.
So I decided to ask an old aboriginal chap, a tribal elder and keeper of stories.
At first I had trouble communicating with him, I used hand signals and interpretative dance.
Eventually the penny dropped and he said
“oh you mean smoke signals, fucked if I know mate, hang on I’ll check on the internet”

mollwollfumble said:

Why was the didgeridoo invented?

This thought came to mind about a month ago when I found out that clicking sticks were not originally musical instruments, but were used by women to pass secret messages to their menfolk. Such as when the menfolk were being held prisoner.

For a nomadic race, carrying a didgeridoo around would be an unwanted burden. And leaving it behind for half a year it would get eaten by termites.

The similarity of the didgeridoo to the alphorn cannot be denied. But that begs the question of why the alphorn was invented? The alphorn evolved into the bugle, which was use to rally troops. But whereas a bugle is easy to carry, an alphorn is not.

If I remember correctly, the didgeridoo was not found all over Australia prior to white arrival, but was limited to the north. Which tentatively suggests that it could have been an alternative to smoke signals. Smoke signals were used by aboriginal people throughout much of the country. Perhaps the didgeridoo needed to replace the smoke signal in country where smoke signals couldn’t be lit (too wet) or were too heavily forested for smoke signals to be seen?

………And leaving it behind for half a year it would get eaten by termites.

No it wouldn’t. Didges can be made by deliberately getting termites to eat the heartwood of selected timber. In the case of a harvested didge, the termites have already done their job on the heartwood.

Michael V said:

mollwollfumble said:

Why was the didgeridoo invented?

This thought came to mind about a month ago when I found out that clicking sticks were not originally musical instruments, but were used by women to pass secret messages to their menfolk. Such as when the menfolk were being held prisoner.

For a nomadic race, carrying a didgeridoo around would be an unwanted burden. And leaving it behind for half a year it would get eaten by termites.

The similarity of the didgeridoo to the alphorn cannot be denied. But that begs the question of why the alphorn was invented? The alphorn evolved into the bugle, which was use to rally troops. But whereas a bugle is easy to carry, an alphorn is not.

If I remember correctly, the didgeridoo was not found all over Australia prior to white arrival, but was limited to the north. Which tentatively suggests that it could have been an alternative to smoke signals. Smoke signals were used by aboriginal people throughout much of the country. Perhaps the didgeridoo needed to replace the smoke signal in country where smoke signals couldn’t be lit (too wet) or were too heavily forested for smoke signals to be seen?

………And leaving it behind for half a year it would get eaten by termites.

No it wouldn’t. Didges can be made by deliberately getting termites to eat the heartwood of selected timber. In the case of a harvested didge, the termites have already done their job on the heartwood.

tick.

Michael V said:

mollwollfumble said:

Why was the didgeridoo invented?

This thought came to mind about a month ago when I found out that clicking sticks were not originally musical instruments, but were used by women to pass secret messages to their menfolk. Such as when the menfolk were being held prisoner.

For a nomadic race, carrying a didgeridoo around would be an unwanted burden. And leaving it behind for half a year it would get eaten by termites.

The similarity of the didgeridoo to the alphorn cannot be denied. But that begs the question of why the alphorn was invented? The alphorn evolved into the bugle, which was use to rally troops. But whereas a bugle is easy to carry, an alphorn is not.

If I remember correctly, the didgeridoo was not found all over Australia prior to white arrival, but was limited to the north. Which tentatively suggests that it could have been an alternative to smoke signals. Smoke signals were used by aboriginal people throughout much of the country. Perhaps the didgeridoo needed to replace the smoke signal in country where smoke signals couldn’t be lit (too wet) or were too heavily forested for smoke signals to be seen?

………And leaving it behind for half a year it would get eaten by termites.

No it wouldn’t. Didges can be made by deliberately getting termites to eat the heartwood of selected timber. In the case of a harvested didge, the termites have already done their job on the heartwood.

Correct.

Also, Didges being largely created by termites, they can be found almost anywhere. Don’t have to carry them around. Gives you something to fill in time while the women are out digging up yams and collecting witchety grubs.

so termites invented didgeridoo

SCIENCE said:

so termites invented didgeridoo

No no no no, yes but no.

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

so termites invented didgeridoo

No no no no, yes but no.

Where Does the Word Didgeridoo Come From?

The fact that bamboo didjeridus were quite common among northerly groups in the Northern Territory during the last century is confirmed by the word ‘bamboo’ which is still used in the lingua franca by some Aborigines when referring to the instrument, though ‘didjeridu’ may be gaining ground.

The suggestion here is that the first didjeridus were of bamboo; and that because of the availability of bamboo in the north-western region of the Northern Territory, the first didjeridu players may well have belonged to that region. Some observations on ‘three very curious trumpets’ made by R.Etheridge Jr. in 1893 are quoted for consideration in this context as they refer particularly to instruments of bamboo. Etheridge writes that ‘ are made from bamboo lengths, the diaphragms having been removed, probably by dropping live coals down the tubes.

The bamboo, I am informed by Mr Stockdale, grows about the Adelaide River over an area of about one hundred miles by fifty, and reaches to a height of eighty feet, Mr J.H. Maiden tells me there are two bamboos indigenous in Australia, Bambusa arnhemica and B.moreheadiana, the latter a climbing species and only one or two inches in diameter.

What Are Other Didgeridoo Names?

According to Prof Trevor Jones, (Monash University) there are at least 45 different synonyms for the didgeridoo. Some are bambu, bombo, kambu, pampuu, (may reflect didge origins from bamboo), garnbak, illpirra, martba, Jiragi, Yiraki, Yidaki, (seem close dialectically and which means “bamoo” although no longer commonly made from bamboo).

roughbarked said:

What Are Other Didgeridoo Names?

According to Prof Trevor Jones, (Monash University) there are at least 45 different synonyms for the didgeridoo. Some are bambu, bombo, kambu, pampuu, (may reflect didge origins from bamboo), garnbak, illpirra, martba, Jiragi, Yiraki, Yidaki, (seem close dialectically and which means “bamoo” although no longer commonly made from bamboo).

History of the Word Didgeridoo

Didgeridoo – Also didjeridu, didjiridu and didjerry.
1919 Huon Times (Franklin) 24 January 4/3

The ****** crew is making merry with the Diridgery doo and the eternal ya-ya-ya- ye-ye-ye cry.
1919 Smith’s Weekly (Sydney) 5 April 15/1

The Northern Territory Aborigines have an infernal and allegedly musical instrument, composed of two feet of hollow bamboo. It produces but one sound – ‘didjerry, didjerry, didjerry’ and so on ad infinitum.
1925 M.TERRY Across Unknown Australia 190

The didjiri-du.. is a long hollow tube, often a tree root about 5 feet long, slightly curved at the lower end. The musician squats on the ground, resting his instrument on the earth. He fits his mouth into the straight or upper end and blows down it in a curious fashion. He produces an intermittent drone.

Aboriginal Names

Aboriginal names for the instruments as there are identifiable language groups. Some of its names, more especially those which suggest routes and directions of the spread of this aerophone within Australia, are given below.

In T.B. Wilson’s Narrative of a Voyage Round the World (1835) there is a drawing of an Aboriginal man of Raffles Bay, Coburg Peninsula, playing the instrument. Several different observers at Raffles Bay described it as being of bamboo and about three feet long. Names obtained (obviously different spellings of the same Aboriginal word) were eboro, ebero and ebroo.

roughbarked said:

Aboriginal Names

Aboriginal names for the instruments as there are identifiable language groups. Some of its names, more especially those which suggest routes and directions of the spread of this aerophone within Australia, are given below.

In T.B. Wilson’s Narrative of a Voyage Round the World (1835) there is a drawing of an Aboriginal man of Raffles Bay, Coburg Peninsula, playing the instrument. Several different observers at Raffles Bay described it as being of bamboo and about three feet long. Names obtained (obviously different spellings of the same Aboriginal word) were eboro, ebero and ebroo.

How Didgeridoos are Created Naturally
The Termites

termite moundTermites are primitive insects which form the order of Isoptera, and although often mistakenly referred to as “white ants” which are in fact no relation. They are in fact relatives of the cockroach. Whilst some build underground, other construct large mounds in the open or eat timber. In each mound, there is a queen who can produce 30 000 eggs a day. Besides tree termites nowadays also eat away from the inside, buildings, fences. In the Northern of Australia, the termites best known to live in and eating out the centre of living trees is the Coptotermes acinaciformes who then fills the hollow with waste matter.
Timbers

cross sectionWooden didjeridoos are varieties form ‘piped’ eucalyptus branches (‘suppressed stems’). ‘Termites nest in these malformed branches, eating the wood from the inside outwards. The species most often selected for didjeridu tubes in coastal regions of Arnhem Land (fig I, area ‘N’) include stringy bark (Eucalyptus tetrodonta) and woolybutt (E. miniata). The River Red gum ( E.camaldulensis) is chosen by north Australian didjeridu players at places nearer to Katherine and further south. A didjeridoo at Maningrida was made form a palm, probably Livistona humilis (Moyle1974:7, note z).

Excluding ‘instant’ didjeridus, such as lengths of iron piping or the tailshafts of land-rovers, wooden instruments seem to more durable than bamboo type has not been measured; but after finding a hollowed branch, the player may chop it down, remove the bark covering, smooth the surfaces, whittle the mouth end, mould beeswax or gum round the rim and have the instrument ready for testing (with the singer) within a space of few hours.

ah now we remember back when we used to chill with Lloyd Hollenberg what a time

Myths About the Didgeridoo
Myth 1: Didgeridoos Were Only Found Traditionally in Northern Australia

At an elementary stage in the development of blowing techniques, areophones sounded by vibrating, or ‘buzzing’ the lips inside a tube, may have been more widely distributed in Australia than at present.

Some evidence for this is to be found in the literature on central Australian groups. Spencer and Gillen (1899) refer to a ‘rudimentary trumpet” (60cm. In length) called ilpirra or ulpirra.

This was used by Aboriginal men as a magic charm for obtaining wives. C.Strehlow (1908: 77 and Teil IV,p.15) shows illustrations of the tjurunga ulburu and the karakara, the latter used in an Aranda Itata, or public celebration in which women participated. T.G.H Strehlow (1947: 78-9) writes of a ‘low toned wooden ulbura trumpet’ used by southern Aranda people on the Finke River. The instrument is pictured representing the neck (rantja) of a venomous snake ‘playfully “biting” a novice from another Aranda group’ (picture facing p. 89). Eylmann (1908) refers to wooden and bamboo trumpets; and his illustrations include a ‘Trompete der Waramunga’, that is of a desert group in area C.
Myth 2: Women Should Not Play Didgeridoo

This aims to clarify some misunderstandings of the role of Didjeridoo in traditional Aboriginal culture, in particular the popular conception that it is taboo for women to play or even touch a Didgeridoo.

While it is true that in the traditional didgeridoo accompanied genres of Northern Australia, (e.g. Wangga and Bunggurl) women do not play in public ceremony, in these areas there appears to be few restrictions on women playing in an informal capacity. The area in which there are the strictest restrictions on women playing and touching the Didgeridoo appears to be in the south east of Australia, where in fact Didgeridoo has only recently been introduced. I believe that the international dissemination of the “taboo” results from it’s compatibility with the commercial agendas of New Age niche marketing.

My understanding of Aboriginal culture in Australia has been formed as an academic ethnomusicologist, through acquaintance with the ethnomusicological and anthropological literature as well as through personal contact, during classes and fieldwork, with the Aboriginal people in a number of communities in South Australia, the Northern Territory and New South Wales.

It is true that traditionally women have not played the Didgeridoo in ceremony. However let us review the evidence for Aboriginal women playing Didgeridoo in informal situations. In discussions with women in the Belyuen community near Darwin in 1995. I was told that there was no prohibition on women playing and in fact several of the older women mentioned a women in the Daly River area who used to play the Didgeridoo.

In a discussion with men from Groote Eylandt, Numbulwar and Gunbalanya it was agreed that there was no explicit Dreaming Law that women should not play Didgeridoo, it was more that women did not know how to. From Yirrkala, there are reports that while both boys and girls as young children play with toy instruments, within a few years, girls stop playing the instrument in public. There are reports that women engage in preparation of Didgeridoos for sale to tourists also playing instruments to test their useability. Reports of women playing the Didgeridoo are especially common in the Kimberley and Gulf regions the Westerly and Easterly extremes of it’s distribution in traditional music. The Didgeridoo has only begun to be played in these areas this century where it accompanies genres originally deriving from Arnhem Land (Bunggurl) or the Daly region (Wangga, Lirrga and Gunborrg).

The clamour of conflicting voices about the use of Didgeridoo by women and by outsiders has drawn attention to the potential for international exploitation and appropriation of traditional music and other Aboriginal cultural property. In addition, the debate has drawn to international attention the fact that there are levels of the sacred and the secret in traditional Aboriginal beliefs, many of them restricted according to gender. Perhaps the Didgeridoo in this case is functioning as a false front, standing in for other truly sacred and restricted according to Aboriginal ceremonial life that it can not be named in public. In this way, the spiritualising of the Didgeridoo not only panders to the commercial New Age niche, but also serves as a means of warning non-Aboriginal people to be wary of inquiring too closely into sacred matters.

Written by Linda Barwick
Reference: The Didgeridoo, From Arnhem Land to Internet
Perfect Beat Publications / Karl Keuenfeldt Back to Index

Animals – Bird Decoy – Creating a Spell

A suggestions that the ‘emu decoy’, reported in several parts of Australia, may have been a precursor of the didjeridu in some areas is to be found in an extract from Roth (1902); he writes (23-4), with reference to instruments called yili-yiki observed in north Queensland (to the north-east of area ‘Y’), that ‘hollow hardwood saplings’ about from 7 to 9 ft long were observed in a region which included Cooktown, Laura, Palmerville, Maytown, Byerston, Bloomfield, the Daintree and Cape Grafton. He adds that ‘the use of this instrument on the Bloomfield, like the “bull-roarer”, is taught at the initiation ceremony, but unlike the latter, it can be played in the camp before the gins and uninitiated males.”

It is never employed in this locality for imitating the call of the cassowary (cf., the ‘emus calls’ of the Gulf country), though, curious to say, the blacks have a legend that it was (and still may be) used by certain spirits for that very purpose, long before they themselves ‘knew how to use it’.

The resemblence between the words yiki-yiki and yiraki (or yidaki), the latter the name for the didjeridu in northeastern Arnhem Land (Yuulngu) languages, claims attention. According to information obtained from a Yuulngu man from Yirrkala, yiraki means ‘emu throat’. On Groote Eylandt, the word for didjeridu, yiraga, is associated with throat only; there are no emus on the island.

In his study of words used for the hollow-log (Ubar) drum, poles and trumpets, Worms found that ubar, uwar and uluru (north west Arnhem Land) and ulpirra, ilpirra and uluburu (central Australia) were ‘linguistic variations of the same stem’. Though not reserved for these instruments only, Worms concluded that ‘the root meaning is revealed in some way in gilbir (East Kimb.), telling, saying, language, story, and in ma-galbiran, ma-gilbiran(West Kimb.), to enchant, to spell. But the radical meaning becomes really evident in the Western Victorian occurrence of kalpiran, kalpernera, kaprina, the dead soul of the deceased, ghost’ (Worms 1953:280).

Didgeridoo / Music Sticks

From words collected for names or types of Australian sound instruments, it appears that there is often a connection between names for ‘paired sticks’ and ‘didjeridu’, though the data require linguistic analysis. Among groups in Arnhem Land ‘paired sticks’ are bilma; in Ranjbarngu they are bilmir; in Ngandi, bil-bil. In Nunggubuyu ‘paired sticks’ are wilbilg, while ‘didjeridu’ is lhambilgilgbilg, the syllable lham- representing ‘tongue’ (information from M.Hoare). In northwestern Arnhem Land, in Wadjagin, the word for ‘paired sticks’ is ganbi, yet in Manda (Wagadj) farther south, the word for ‘didjeridu’ is kanbi or ganbi. In area ‘K’, in Djaru, Gidja and Waladjangari languages, the name for ‘paired sticks’ is kanbag; in Garamu (area ‘K’) and in Djawanji (area ‘N’), ganbag is the name for ‘didjeridu’.
Traveling Songs

The ‘inside’ or esoteric word for ‘didjeridu’ used by the Yuulngu in the Djalambu (hollow-log) mortuary ceremony of the yirritja moiety, is djalupi. Remarkably similar are the following two esoteric words obtained for the instrument: djalupu (Ranjbarngu language) in area ‘N’ and djalupun (Worora language) in area ‘K’. There appear to have been several routes along which songs accompanied by Didgeridoo have travelled in the past. Organonymy (by analogy with toponymy) would seem to be an essential part of organology.
Ceremonial Performance

Within Arnhem Land, a careful distinction is made between different types of percussive accompaniment in ceremonial performances. Cult songs accompanied by boomerang clapsticks have been mention above. There are also large, slowly-beaten, paired sticks used accompanying songs of Narra (Maraian) rituals. Because of their high ceremonial status, one might reasonably assume that Narra songs are older than didjeridu-accompanied songs of the same region. On the other hand, in the process of it’s ‘intrusion’ into Arnhem Land music, the didjeridu may have function to some extent as a music ‘fixative’, preserving renments of songs styles of earlier period. If this has been the case then the pre-didjeridu song vestiges still retained could be as old, or older, than songs associated with Narra-type rituals.
Various Didgeridoo Shapes

There appears to be no standard shape or size to which an Arnhem Land didjeridu must conform. The acoustic behaviour of each individual specimen will depend on length of the tube and shape of its near conical bore. From measurements made by the writer in different parts Arnhem Land it is apparent that tubes (hollowed branches or bamboo) measuring about 1 m to 1’ 6 m, in length are sought. The lowest audible tones on tubes cut to these lengths are within a frequency range of from 70 to 100 Hz.

SCIENCE said:

ah now we remember back when we used to chill with Lloyd Hollenberg what a time

:) Why can a didgeridoo levitate a $20 note? Cultural Infusion presents a new and exciting show based on original research of Lloyd Hollenberg, professor of theoretical physics at the Melbourne University. Answering the questions you never even thought to ask.

The didgeridoo is as simple as it is complex. The simple part is the instrument itself: a pipe made from a branch that has been hollowed out by termites. The complexity is created by the human players and how they produce the sound

The didgeridoo is one of the oldest wind instruments, however the physical and acoustical properties are new fields of study. The first scientific paper on the didgeridoo was written by Dr Neville Fletcher as late as 1983 – “Acoustics of the Australian didjeridu”, Australian Aboriginal Studies. Professor Lloyd Hollenberg and his team also made a huge contribution when they produced a live image of the geometry of the mouth cavity and vocal tract of a didgeridoo player. For that he used a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.

His results allow increasing the understanding of what a didgeridoo player is doing to produce the sound, and how that interacts with the instrument. Astonishingly, the level of noise in a didgeridoo player’s mouth can be louder than a jackhammer!

Soundwaves don’t just travel down the didgeridoo; they also bounce back when they reach the end, creating very complex resonances. These bouncing soundwaves then create a vibrating column of air. You $20 note will not be blown away, as you would imagine, but is levitated with soundwaves.

Cultural Infusion has created an exciting new education show based on Professor Hollenberg’s research. The Science of the Didgeridoo provides students with a vibrant introduction to sound and soundwaves, as well as completely new perspectives on Aboriginal culture.

The show concludes with a beautiful experiment involving the didgeridoo and a barbecue – your students will never think about sound in the same way again!

I have not read all of this thread ….but Northern Australia apparently has some off the most prolific amount of termites that can do some pretty amazing things to structures a close 2nd is in Central West Nsw (as a pest man said once), digeridoos are made by termites, digeridoos are only supposed to be played by men in the aboriginal culture, given that Australia was / is divided into to 100’s of different tradtional nations , from first nation Australians it may well be culturally specific to certain regions historically and then shared more recently with sharing of culture within culture (if that makes sense)

If the bongs broken, will a didgerdoo?

bucolic3401 said:

If the bongs broken, will a didgerdoo?

It’d make a dandy chillum.

roughbarked said:

bucolic3401 said:

If the bongs broken, will a didgerdoo?

It’d make a dandy chillum.

but only if you have really long arms

Ogmog said:

roughbarked said:

bucolic3401 said:

If the bongs broken, will a didgerdoo?

It’d make a dandy chillum.

but only if you have really long arms

What are friends for?

Ogmog said:

roughbarked said:

bucolic3401 said:

If the bongs broken, will a didgerdoo?

It’d make a dandy chillum.

but only if you have really long arms

and really big lungs to suck all the air out before you get to the stuff you want.

roughbarked said:

bucolic3401 said:

If the bongs broken, will a didgerdoo?

It’d make a dandy chillum.

.. for an elephant.

“This thought came to mind about a month ago when I found out that clicking sticks were not originally musical instruments, but were used by women to pass secret messages to their menfolk. Such as when the menfolk were being held prisoner.
“

Ref?

dv said:

“This thought came to mind about a month ago when I found out that clicking sticks were not originally musical instruments, but were used by women to pass secret messages to their menfolk. Such as when the menfolk were being held prisoner.
“

Ref?

ROFL

sibeen said:

dv said:

“This thought came to mind about a month ago when I found out that clicking sticks were not originally musical instruments, but were used by women to pass secret messages to their menfolk. Such as when the menfolk were being held prisoner.
“

Ref?

ROFL

It’s the way I tell ‘em

dv said:

sibeen said:

dv said:

“This thought came to mind about a month ago when I found out that clicking sticks were not originally musical instruments, but were used by women to pass secret messages to their menfolk. Such as when the menfolk were being held prisoner.
“

Ref?

ROFL

It’s the way I tell ‘em

certainly ain’t the content!

Loving this thread.

mollwollfumble said:

Loving this thread.

We are still awaiting your reference to the above.

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

so termites invented didgeridoo

No no no no, yes but no.

Where Does the Word Didgeridoo Come From?

The fact that bamboo didjeridus were quite common among northerly groups in the Northern Territory during the last century is confirmed by the word ‘bamboo’ which is still used in the lingua franca by some Aborigines when referring to the instrument, though ‘didjeridu’ may be gaining ground.

The suggestion here is that the first didjeridus were of bamboo; and that because of the availability of bamboo in the north-western region of the Northern Territory, the first didjeridu players may well have belonged to that region. Some observations on ‘three very curious trumpets’ made by R.Etheridge Jr. in 1893 are quoted for consideration in this context as they refer particularly to instruments of bamboo. Etheridge writes that ‘ are made from bamboo lengths, the diaphragms having been removed, probably by dropping live coals down the tubes.

The bamboo, I am informed by Mr Stockdale, grows about the Adelaide River over an area of about one hundred miles by fifty, and reaches to a height of eighty feet, Mr J.H. Maiden tells me there are two bamboos indigenous in Australia, Bambusa arnhemica and B.moreheadiana, the latter a climbing species and only one or two inches in diameter.

I went looking through Trove newspapers for any mention of the didgeridoo, under any name.

At first, I found no reference before 1908, then none until 1918.

Then just as I was about to give up, I found a reference from 1858 which is startlingly unusual.

I can eliminate two possibilities up front.

• The word did not come from Bendidgerie, as in Bendidgerie station on Bendidgerie Ck.
• The word did not come from Murrumdidgerie, an alternative pronunciation of Murrumbidgee.

I cannot rule out the possibility yet that the word Didgerie came from the English name Diggory. There was a Diggory/Didgery around in 1877, if not before, and the reference from 1858 doesn’t mention the word “didgeridoo”. Temporarily ignoring the 1858 reference, let’s see what the newspapers tell us.

• Hollow sticks in general and hollow bamboos in particular, had been used by Europeans for smuggling purposes for over 100 years. For example, “it was not until 552 AD that the Byzantine emperor Justinian obtained the first silkworm eggs. He had sent two Nestorian monks to Central Asia, and they were able to smuggle silkworm eggs to him hidden in rods of bamboo.”

• In Australia, hollow sticks were used to smuggle tin as early as 1833. Documents and poiniards were also hidden by whites in hollow sticks.
• By 1898-1899 in Australia, chinese firecrackers had been made out of hollow sticks. And also a gun.
• In 1900, an aboriginal was using a hollow stick to imitate a telescope.

Turning north from Australia.

• By 1972, a hollow stick was used to collect and carry poison on Mivo Island (Bougainville).
• By 1884, in New Guinea, long hollow bamboo sticks were used as pipes for smoking betel-nut and opium.
• By 1890, in Borneo, hollow sticks were used as drinking straws.
• By 1890, in the New Hebredes and Fiji, hollow sticks were used as musical instruments, but not for blowing like a pipe or horn, instead beated together.

Back to Australia. The first appearance of the word “did-gery-do” in the newspapers is in 1908. Used to blow into by the Mootburra tribe of the Northern Territory near Black Gin Creek. A recent reference puts this tribal location possibly NE of Newcastle Waters homestead. Story by S.E. Pearson.

The second appearance of the word “didgeridoo” in the newspapers is in 1919. “The didgeriedoo is a hollow stick which the abos use to make a sort of music”, from a story with an imprecise location “far out on the fringe of the never never”.

The third appearance of the word “didgeri-doo” in the newspapers is in 1923, and this is the first one to associate it with any specific aboriginal activity. The location is given imprecisely as “The Territory”. Part of the quote is “to make rain … the doleful humming of the didgeri-doo and the tom-tom”

By 1952, “Didgerido” was the name of a racehorse.

So there the situation seemed to rest, it seemed possible that aboriginal people had copied the didgeridoo from the hollow bamboos of the whites, or obtained it as a cast-off pipe from the New Guinea natives. But the 1853 reference eliminates both possibilities.

02 July 1853. Newspaper “Empire”.
“THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA.—No. 5. LANGUAGE—MUSIC—MORE OF WARFARE.—HUNTING—HUNTING-GROUNDS—MODE OF PUNISH MENT.”
The soothing powers of the musical art are not altogether unknown among the
aborigines. In their corroborees they sing and beat time with sticks, and their dance
is performed to a rude species of music, “vocal and instrumental.” Their musical
instruments are few, two sorts being all that have been discovered. One of these
is described as a species of kettle drum, formed of kangaroo skin and a piece of
hollow timber, the former drawn tightly over the latter, and secured at the sides,
something after the fashion of the instrument in use among Europeans. The other
is described as a species of pipe, made of bamboo, about three feet in length. The
manner of sounding this instrument is a novelty in the musical world, as it is the
only instrument known which is operated on by the nasal organ. Such is the me-
thod of sounding it as practised by the sable musicians, who succeed in producing
thereby a droning noise, not unlike the tones of the bagpipe.

A nose flute!

Didgeridoo is regarded as an onomatopoetic word, imitating the sound of the instrument:

>The name didgeridoo is not of Aboriginal Australian linguistic origin and is considered to be an onomatopoetic word. The earliest occurrences of the word in print include a 1908 edition of the Hamilton Spectator referring to a “‘did-gery-do’ (hollow bamboo)”, a 1914 edition of The Northern Territory Times and Gazette, and a 1919 issue of Smith’s Weekly, in which it was referred to as a “didjerry” and was said to produce the sound “didjerry, didjerry, didjerry and so on ad infinitum”.

A rival explanation, that didgeridoo is a corruption of the Irish Gaelic phrase dúdaire dubh or dúidire dúth, is controversial. Dúdaire or dúidire is a noun that, depending on the context, may mean “trumpeter”, “hummer”, “crooner” or “puffer”, while dubh means “black”, and dúth means “native”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo

Bubblecar said:

Didgeridoo is regarded as an onomatopoetic word, imitating the sound of the instrument:

>The name didgeridoo is not of Aboriginal Australian linguistic origin and is considered to be an onomatopoetic word. The earliest occurrences of the word in print include a 1908 edition of the Hamilton Spectator referring to a “‘did-gery-do’ (hollow bamboo)”, a 1914 edition of The Northern Territory Times and Gazette, and a 1919 issue of Smith’s Weekly, in which it was referred to as a “didjerry” and was said to produce the sound “didjerry, didjerry, didjerry and so on ad infinitum”.

A rival explanation, that didgeridoo is a corruption of the Irish Gaelic phrase dúdaire dubh or dúidire dúth, is controversial. Dúdaire or dúidire is a noun that, depending on the context, may mean “trumpeter”, “hummer”, “crooner” or “puffer”, while dubh means “black”, and dúth means “native”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo

A while ago I heard a bowed double bass being played in such a way as to sound identical to a didgeridoo.

Tamb said:

Bubblecar said:

Didgeridoo is regarded as an onomatopoetic word, imitating the sound of the instrument:

>The name didgeridoo is not of Aboriginal Australian linguistic origin and is considered to be an onomatopoetic word. The earliest occurrences of the word in print include a 1908 edition of the Hamilton Spectator referring to a “‘did-gery-do’ (hollow bamboo)”, a 1914 edition of The Northern Territory Times and Gazette, and a 1919 issue of Smith’s Weekly, in which it was referred to as a “didjerry” and was said to produce the sound “didjerry, didjerry, didjerry and so on ad infinitum”.

A rival explanation, that didgeridoo is a corruption of the Irish Gaelic phrase dúdaire dubh or dúidire dúth, is controversial. Dúdaire or dúidire is a noun that, depending on the context, may mean “trumpeter”, “hummer”, “crooner” or “puffer”, while dubh means “black”, and dúth means “native”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo

A while ago I heard a bowed double bass being played in such a way as to sound identical to a didgeridoo.

Nice!

There is a famous didgeridoo concerto – often played on classical radio – which is abysmally bad.

A friend of ours, composer Margaret Shirley, wrote a music piece with didgeridoo. I haven’t heard it yet.

What I would like very much to hear is a trio:
Didgeridoo + Bagpipes + Crumhorn (The Crumhorn is an ancestor of the oboe, it sounds sharper than the oboe)
The Didgeridoo would handle the bass,
The Bagpipes, playing quietly, tying the bass to the treble,
The Crumhorn handling the treble.

I think that, properly done it would sound great. It hasn’t been written yet.

> A while ago I heard a bowed double bass being played in such a way as to sound identical to a didgeridoo.

Perhaps didgeridoo + double bass + uh?
A trouble with that is that a double bass lacks the overtones of the didgeridoo. The double bass is too mellow.