{"id":"MUS2026-056","label":"Sayid, a Saharan child's toy","people_or_site":"Arab (Saharan)","country_current":"Algeria","historic_region":"Saharan Algeria","macroregion":"Africa / North Africa","local_name":"SAYID","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Bull-roarer of the Arab (Saharan), Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford (acc. 2005.61.1). Five more sayid from El Kantara are in the same museum, 1913.17.72–76, none longer than a hand's span at 10.9 to 15.3 centimetres and running from broad paddles to ribbons barely two centimetres across.","function_summary":"A child's plaything: the sayid is classed with Hilton-Simpson's Algerian toy-and-game material, with no rite, weather magic, or secrecy attached.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"pitt_rivers","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-213920","page_or_plate":"2005.61.1","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"El Kantara, Algeria, the town named for this and five other instruments from Hilton-Simpson's 1912–13 collecting; an approximate town-level point, not an exact findspot.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A wooden bullroarer collected at El Kantara, on the desert edge below the Aures, by Melville Hilton-Simpson in the winter of 1912-13 and now in the Pitt Rivers Museum. It is a plaything — the local \"sayid,\" a perforated wooden slat whirled on a fibre cord — and it came home among Hilton-Simpson's other Algerian toys and games. No men's cult, weather rite, or secrecy attaches to it; on the Saharan rim the roarer surfaces simply as a noisemaker in a child's hand.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"\"Sayid\" is the local name recorded by Hilton-Simpson for this El Kantara bullroarer; \"El Kantara\" is the gorge-town gateway between the Algerian high plains and the Sahara, on the edge of the Aures (Shawia Berber) country.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, acc. 2005.61.1; field-collected by Melville William Hilton-Simpson at El Kantara, Algeria, winter 1912-13 (local name \"sayid\")","url":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-213920","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260917174840/https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39663"}],"source_citations":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, acc. 2005.61.1; field-collected by Melville William Hilton-Simpson at El Kantara, Algeria, winter 1912-13 (local name \"sayid\")","source_display":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, acc. 2005.61.1; field-collected by Melville William Hilton-Simpson at El Kantara, Algeria, winter 1912-13 (local name \"sayid\")","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bull-roarer of the Arab (Saharan), Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford (acc. 2005.61.1). Five more sayid from El Kantara are in the same museum, 1913.17.72–76, none longer than a hand's span at 10.9 to 15.3 centimetres and running from broad paddles to ribbons barely two centimetres across.","function_display":"A child's plaything: the sayid is classed with Hilton-Simpson's Algerian toy-and-game material, with no rite, weather magic, or secrecy attached.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"arab","display_name":"Sayid, a Saharan child's toy","image":{"full":"assets/objects/prm/prm_213920.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/prm/thumbs/prm_213920_thumb.jpg","alt":"Arab Saharan bullroarer SAYID, Pitt Rivers Museum 2005.61.1: a rectangular wooden board bearing handwritten notes, with cord looped around it.","credit":"© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (acc. 2005.61.1)","license":"© Pitt Rivers Museum — non-commercial/educational reuse with attribution","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-213920","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Arab (Saharan) bull-roarer ‘SAYID’, Pitt Rivers Museum (acc. 2005.61.1).","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/prm/prm_39565.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/prm/thumbs/prm_39565_thumb.jpg","credit":"© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (acc. 1913.17.72)","license":"© Pitt Rivers Museum — non-commercial/educational reuse with attribution","source_page":"https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39565","rehosted":true,"caption":"A sibling from the same 1912–13 El Kantara collecting: PRM 1913.17.72, cord wound round the grip."}]},"slug":"mus2026-056-arab-saharan"}