{"id":"BLACKBURN1975-001","label":"Whir at the spring of Iwihinmu","people_or_site":"Chumash narrative of Mount Pinos (ʔIwhinmuʔu), told by Maria","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"California / Kern–Ventura county line / Mount Pinos (ʔIwhinmuʔu)","macroregion":"North America / California","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A bullroarer heard, never seen, at sacred Mount Pinos.","function_summary":"In narratives of the sacred mountain, the whiz of an unseen bullroarer marks a supernatural presence: once at a spring at night, once with a runaway fire, strange white and red animals and an earthquake.","attestation_type":"historical_text","source_key":"blackburn1975_decembers_child_iwhinmuu","source_type":"published_account","source_url":"https://books.google.com/books?id=e2lC7XcLrzoC","page_or_plate":"pp. 299–300","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Mount Pinos summit (Applegate 1974 pp. 198–199 identifies ʔIwhinmu with Mount Pinos); the spring is not located.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Mount Pinos, ʔIwhinmuʔu, was holy ground, and no one gathered its pine nuts. A party from Tejon once camped by the only spring near the mountain, and Fernando, an Ineseño, laughed at the warnings. He went down to drink at night anyway. He heard dull sounds, then a deep voice: 'There is one at the door, a pauper.' Then he heard the whiz of a bullroarer. His companions heard him crashing back through the brush and took him for a bear; he came in a believer, and soon after they returned to Tejon he died. Another story of the mountain tells of a hunting fire that ran wild, a bullroarer's whir, white and red deer bursting out, and the ground shaking underfoot.","pull_quote":"Then he heard the whiz of a bullroarer.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Thomas C. Blackburn, December's Child (1975), p. 300","term_gloss":"","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Thomas C. Blackburn, December's Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives (1975), pp. 299–300","url":"https://books.google.com/books?id=e2lC7XcLrzoC"},{"citation":"Richard B. Applegate, 'Chumash Placenames,' Journal of California Anthropology 1(2) (1974), pp. 198–199","url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3s34f5ss"}],"source_citations":"Thomas C. Blackburn, December's Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives (1975), pp. 299–300; Richard B. Applegate, 'Chumash Placenames,' Journal of California Anthropology 1(2) (1974), pp. 198–199","source_display":"Thomas C. Blackburn, December's Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives (1975), pp. 299–300; Richard B. Applegate, 'Chumash Placenames,' Journal of California Anthropology 1(2) (1974), pp. 198–199","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bullroarer heard, never seen, at sacred Mount Pinos.","function_display":"In narratives of the sacred mountain, the whiz of an unseen bullroarer marks a supernatural presence: once at a spring at night, once with a runaway fire, strange white and red animals and an earthquake.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"historical text","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"chumash narrative","display_name":"Whir at the spring of Iwihinmu","image":{"full":"assets/objects/FEWKES1903-001_fewkes1903_plateIII_tcolawitze.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/FEWKES1903-001_fewkes1903_plateIII_tcolawitze_thumb.jpg","credit":"Hopi artist, in J. W. Fewkes, Hopi Katcinas Drawn by Native Artists, BAE Twenty-first Annual Report (1903), Plate III","license":"Public domain (US, published 1903)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/hopikatcinasdraw00fewk","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Hopi Fire-god personation Tcolawitze swinging a corded bullroarer","pool_id":"auto-FEWKES1903-001_fewkes1903_plateIII_tcolawitze","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"blackburn1975-001-chumash-narrative-of-mount-pinos-iwhinmu-u-told-by-maria"}