{"id":"OPLER1938-001","label":"Thunder's groaning stick","people_or_site":"Jicarilla Apache","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Jicarilla Apache Reservation, Dulce, New Mexico","macroregion":"North America","local_name":"groaning stick","source_term":"bull-roarer; groaning stick","source_language":"English","object_description":"A blade of lightning-riven spruce cut to the shape of a black flint arrowhead, swung on a string of mountain-sheep hide.","function_summary":"Thunder's voice in the Hactcin curing ceremony: sounded by the dancer who plays Thunder Hactcin outside the corral at each cardinal direction, never in the sight of the people.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"opler1938_jicarilla_myths","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=miun.agy7794.0001.001","page_or_plate":"pp. 147, 151–152, 165, 183–184, 199–200","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Dulce, seat of the Jicarilla Apache Reservation, where Opler worked; community anchor.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Black Lightning made the first one. Asked to the first Hactcin ceremony, he stepped into a black cloud, sent his arrow, the black flint, into a spruce, picked up the splinter that fell to the east and cut it to the shape of the flint. At the ceremony Thunder Hactcin whirled it outside the corral at each of the four directions, and it was never to be twirled in the sight of the people. When the gods left, Talking Hactcin told Thunder, \"You must leave your groaning stick here,\" and Old Man Thunder went up into a cloud with a clap: \"They will say, 'Grandfather, we like to hear you every year.'\" The people made their own copy, strung with mountain-sheep hide and patterned on the first. The original went home to Thunder by a messenger who turned himself into a flash of light, and Thunder sent back word that he would send a shower.","pull_quote":"You must leave your groaning stick here. Whenever the people have this ceremony they will use this stick.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Talking Hactcin to Thunder, in Morris E. Opler, Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians (1938), p. 165","term_gloss":"Hactcin: the Jicarilla holy beings who made the world and gave the people their curing ceremony; the groaning stick is Opler's English for the bull-roarer.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Morris Edward Opler, Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society 31 (1938), pp. 147, 151–152, 165, 183–184, 199–200","url":"https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=miun.agy7794.0001.001"}],"source_citations":"Morris Edward Opler, Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society 31 (1938), pp. 147, 151–152, 165, 183–184, 199–200","source_display":"Morris Edward Opler, Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society 31 (1938), pp. 147, 151–152, 165, 183–184, 199–200","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A blade of lightning-riven spruce cut to the shape of a black flint arrowhead, swung on a string of mountain-sheep hide.","function_display":"Thunder's voice in the Hactcin curing ceremony: sounded by the dancer who plays Thunder Hactcin outside the corral at each cardinal direction, never in the sight of the people.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"jicarilla apache","display_name":"Thunder's groaning stick","image":{"full":"assets/objects/BOURKE1892-002.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/BOURKE1892-002_thumb.jpg","alt":"Bourke's engraving of two Apache rhombi: one blade bears stacked chevrons and the other wavy vertical lines, with both hanging from braided cords.","credit":"J. W. Powell / J. G. Bourke (1892)","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/medicinemenofapa00bourrich","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"An Apache sounding wood illustrated by John G. Bourke in 1892.","pool_id":"auto-BOURKE1892-002"},"slug":"opler1938-001-jicarilla-apache"}