ROMBO. – It is a thin wooden tablet, oval or oblong in shape, with a hole at one end, to which a cord is fastened: when the cord is rapidly whirled, the tablet attached to it cleaves the air, producing a buzzing sound. This noise has been interpreted as the rumbling of thunder, or as the lowing of oxen or the buzzing of bees.
Primitive peoples use it as a sacred object. On special occasions it is shown only to initiates of a secret society of a religious nature, while the uninitiated—usually women and children—listen from a distance, terrified, to its sacred sound. This is the very voice of the Supreme Celestial Being, and the instrument is identified with the divinity. The r. is found in Australia and among other populations 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.), and 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 a complete account of the distribution of the r. among primitive peoples, compiled on the basis of current knowledge, V. Zerris (op. cit. in bibl.).
In classical antiquity, the use of the r. as a sacred object was connected with esoteric cults and rituals, as Archytas and Clement of Alexandria testify. It was probably also known in Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia.
There are also cases of populations 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 an instrument used by shepherds to call their flocks. Cases of this kind may be found in ancient Greece, among certain primitive civilizations, and among some contemporary European peoples (Sicily, Campania, Tuscany, the Basque Country, Galicia, Pomerania, Scotland, etc.).