Esquella i picarol

What is

The cattle bells.

• Esquella: portable bell; in cattle, the cowbell (DCVB). In the Middle Ages also the small church bell.
• Picarol: small esquela, 4 to 12 cm high and generally flattened, carried by goats, sheep, oxen (DCVB, bal.).

How is

• Sheet metal or cast metal body, open mouth.
• Batall: the clapper that hangs inside (DCVB).
• It hangs from a necklace, a flat hoop usually made of lledoner (hackberry) (see garniments ).
• Each verse sounds different: the shepherd recognizes his flock and each animal (types and Majorcan names of sizes, please verify).

How is fa

• By ferrers or foundries (see campaners i fonedors and ferro forjat ).
• Active Mallorcan workshop that manufactures them today: to verify (search without result, 10/14/2026).

Com s'usa

• Locate the flock in the garrigue and in the fog.
• The joint sound marks the passage of the cattle: «Percep el so de les esquelles de les egües» (Rosselló, DCVB).
• Corns i esquelles (Mall.): closed in front of the house of the widower who remarries, with sea shells (corns) and esquelles (DCVB).
• In Petra and Vilafranca, sàrries also means cowbells (see sàrria ).

Vocabulary

• esquella — cowbell.
• picarol — small, flat cowbell.
• batall — clapper.
• collar d'esquella — wooden necklace.
• corns i esquelles — cencerrada (Mall.).
• «Dur ses esquelles» — to command, to take direction (Mall.).
• «Clavar un cop d'esquella» – say nonsense.
• picarol (Alaró, Binissalem) — small almond; (Palm) small thing that moves, like a loose tooth.
• «Tenir picarol» – to be glib.

History

• 13th century: Llull: “sonar l'esquella” in the convent (Blanquerna).
• 1428: "that from deu to deu besties must carry a picarol" (Mostassaf, DCVB): legal obligation.
• Today: they are still in flocks of sheep and goats in Mallorca.

On veure'n

• Herds from the Serra de Tramuntana and Pla.
• Blessing of animals of Sant Antoni (January) (to verify use of esquelles in the festival).

Why is it design

• Sound identity: each note is an acoustic signature.
• Law of sound: one picarol for every ten beasts (1428).
• Local material on the necklace: curved lledoner wood.

For the project

• Soundscape recording of esquelles (radio, video).
• Search for a live manufacturer in Mallorca; If there is none, document the loss.

Sources

• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=esquella
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=picarol
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=batall
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=corn

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.

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