2023-06-11 08:01:00
According to one definition, the boleadoras “are three round stones, each one the size of an egg -this comparison may be appropriate for the balls of the ñanduceras, but not for the bagualeras, which are larger- and lined with leather, tied two of they at the end of a braid, also made of leather, a little over three meters long; the third ball is secured to the end of a shorter strip, which is tied in the middle of the first braid.
“Thrown by the country man at the hind legs of an animal, from a certain distance, it envelops it in such a way that as it runs, or makes movements to free itself, it becomes more and more trapped until it is stopped in its race.” “The boleadoras can be launched, in an accurate shot, up to a distance of up to fifty meters and a rider. Helped by the momentum of the arm with the speed of the horse, he is capable of throwing them up to almost a hundred meters ”.
Coronel Dorrego’s researcher, Dr. Pedro Hurtado, in his interesting book “Ameguínia” notes that “throwing stone balls were a common weapon to all primitive peoples, who used them before spears and arrows.”
Mention that at the dawn of the Neolithic they were thrown loose, and without major carving work. Then, over the millennia, the use of the sling, with two branches, was used, which, when thrown over the head, was thrown by releasing only one branch, just like in our times”. Perhaps – I narrow down – that was the sling with which King David wounded the Philistine giant Goliath.
“Something similar to these slingshots, which are obviously not indigenous to our pampas, were the lost balls / trahuil). Here there is already a carving job, and an equatorial groove to hold them to the throwing branch. This was just a fiber or leather handle, 60 to 80 centimeters. With a large ball like a fist on one end (the true blunt weapon), and a ring, knot, or smaller ball on the other. The Indians were true masters in their handling, and many human victims fell in well-aimed shots.
“The boleadoras -says Hurtado- are more recent, and their use was generalized among the gauchos, something that did not happen with the lost balls”.
What are boleadoras made of?
“Until a few centuries ago, the balls were made of granite or flint. Approximately round boulders of suitable size were collected from the beds of the streams, and they were chopped with the “martellina” (stone hammer with a boulder in the form of use and hard rock), until they were conveniently prepared; then they polished them by rolling them in primitive granite mortars, in which they placed wet sand. He turned them patiently, squeezing them with his hand, until they were completely smooth and round. With a fine-tipped hammer, they would carve out the equatorial groove, and then fill it in with thin silica discs.
“In these grooves of the balls, they ensured the fresh tips, so that when they dried and retracted, they tightly fit the ball.”
Those destined for wars were called “warriors”. Somewhat smaller, and lighter, with shorter ropes, they are called “troopers”, dedicated to hunting wild animals, preferably foals, which are the ones that have come down to us.
There were also the “ostriches” or “choiqueras”, much smaller, with finer tientos and shorter branches.
Dr. Hurtado notes that “later in time, both the aborigines and the criollos learned to replay the balls in fresh leather, and they no longer had the need to carve grooves in them.
Today the stones can be seen in museums and private collections, sometimes in country parades, and also in skill shows.
Martin Fierro saysWhen you walk in the desert/ you eat up to the tails; / They have crossed it with women alone / reaching the end with salú / and the ñandú must be a gaucho / that escapes from my balls”.
As an aside, we can mention that during his stay in Chimpay, Ceferino Namuncurá was very skilled in the use of boleadoras.
As in the field, the boys usually make boleadoras to play with various objects, such as: bones and marlos that has generated the proverb to exemplify the lack of weight: “Light as a marlo boleadora”.
And a curiosity: the saying “more boleado than gaucho in the city” was used to describe the state of stupefaction suffered by those who were hit by the boleadoras of the original towns.
And in order not to walk without much orientation or direction, that is, like a “lost ball” I end this brief scholium on the boleadoras.
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