RHOMBOID. - It is a thin wooden tablet, oval or oblong in shape, with a hole at one end, to which a cord is fastened: by making this spin rapidly, the tablet tied to it cleaves the air, producing a humming sound. This noise has been interpreted as the roar of thunder, or as the lowing of oxen or the humming of bees.
Primitive peoples use it as a sacred object. It is shown, on special occasions, only to the initiated of a secret society of a religious character, while the uninitiated (usually women and children) hear its sacred sound from afar with terror. This is the voice of the Supreme Celestial Being itself, and the instrument is identified with the divinity. The r. is found in Australia and among other peoples of Oceania (Torres Strait Islands, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Zealand, etc.), in Asia (Sumatra, etc.), in Africa (among the Bushmen, among the Zulu, on the Guinea Coast, etc.), in America (among the Eskimos, the Indians of the northwest coast, the Californians, the Arapaho, the Apache, the Navaho, the Pueblos, the Bororo, etc.). For the complete picture of the diffusion of the r. among primitive peoples, drawn up on the basis of current knowledge, v. Zerris (op. cit. in bibl.).
In classical antiquity the use of the r. as a sacred object is connected with esoteric cults and rituals, as Archytas and Clement of Alexandria testify. It was probably also known in Egypt and in ancient Mesopotamia.
There are then cases of peoples among whom the r. is not unknown as an object, but no longer has a sacred character, having declined to the role of a toy or of an instrument used by shepherds to call back their flocks. Cases of this kind can be found in ancient Greece, among certain primitive civilizations and among certain contemporary European common folk (Sicily, Campania, Tuscany, the Basque Country, Galicia, Pomerania, Scotland, etc.).
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