{"id":"LOEB1932-004","label":"Huchnom ghosts' string head tier","people_or_site":"Huchnom","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"South Fork Eel River country, Mendocino County, California","macroregion":"North America / California","local_name":"tet nun toyol","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English; Huchnom","object_description":"A sacred bullroarer called tet nun toyol, 'string head tier'; its form and material are not described.","function_summary":"Twirled by the ghost impersonators during their ceremony at hulk'ilal woknam, the Huchnom boys' winter initiation school.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"loeb1932_huchnom","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp033-002.pdf","page_or_plate":"pp. 58–59","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Huchnom territory on the South Fork Eel River and Outlet Creek, between the Yuki and the Pomo; regional anchor, not a school site. Potter Valley is the consultant's residence, not a performance place.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"The ghosts came down from the hills in winter, striped black and white, with flowers in their hair and what looked like pitch burning in it. At hulk'ilal woknam, the Huchnom school for boys of about ten, they circled the fire four times each way and twirled the sacred bullroarer, tet nun toyol, the string head tier. The boys fasted four days without food or water, slept on straw and learned the story of creation from the chief. When the spring flowers came they were painted white with black stripes, their mouths and ears stuffed with straw, and thrown out through the smoke hole of the dance house. Their mothers and aunts caught them, washed them, and dressed them in deer or puma skins.","pull_quote":"The bullroarer was sacred among the Huchnom","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Edwin M. Loeb, The Western Kuksu Cult (1932), p. 59","term_gloss":"tet nun toyol: Loeb's gloss 'string head tier' (1932, p. 59). hulk'ilal woknam: the Huchnom winter ghost school (p. 58).","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["initiation","death_rebirth","women_special"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":true,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Edwin M. Loeb, 'The Western Kuksu Cult,' University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 33(1) (1932), pp. 58–59","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp033-002.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20220620205539/https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp033-002.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Edwin M. Loeb, 'The Western Kuksu Cult,' University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 33(1) (1932), pp. 58–59","source_display":"Edwin M. Loeb, 'The Western Kuksu Cult,' University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 33(1) (1932), pp. 58–59","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A sacred bullroarer called tet nun toyol, 'string head tier'; its form and material are not described.","function_display":"Twirled by the ghost impersonators during their ceremony at hulk'ilal woknam, the Huchnom boys' winter initiation school.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"huchnom","display_name":"Huchnom ghosts' string head tier","image":{"full":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_03/GIFFORD1940-007_densmore1929_pl15c.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_03/thumbs/GIFFORD1940-007_densmore1929_pl15c_thumb.jpg","credit":"Frances Densmore, Papago Music, BAE Bulletin 90 (1929), pl. 15c","license":"Public domain (published 1929)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/bulletin901929smit/page/n130/mode/1up","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Papago Viikita bullroarer: dark blade, twisted cord and stick handle","pool_id":"auto-hunt_2026_10_03--GIFFORD1940-007_densmore1929_pl15c","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-30"},"slug":"loeb1932-004-huchnom"}