{"id":"POWELL2014-001","label":"Quileute thunder-calling roarer","people_or_site":"Quileute","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Washington / western Olympic Peninsula / Quillayute River (La Push)","macroregion":"North America / Northwest Coast","local_name":"","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A thin piece of wood whirled overhead on a string, making a sound like thunder.","function_summary":"Swung by shamans and weathermen to make thunder or rain; children also whirled thin wooden pieces on strings for the hum.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"powell2014_quileute_roaring_riffle","source_type":"ethnographic_article","source_url":"https://talkingraven.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/november_2014.pdf","page_or_plate":"Powell pp. 8–9 (§20); Pettitt p. 12","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"La Push, the Quileute village at the mouth of the Quillayute River; territory anchor, no use-place recorded. The Roaring Riffle (800 yards below the Bogachiel–Calawah confluence) is a place-name, not a performance site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Swung around the head, it made a sound like thunder, and in the old days Quileute shamans and weathermen used it to call down thunder or rain. Children whirled thin pieces of wood on strings simply for the hum. The sound is still written into the rivers: the Quileute and the Hoh both called a stretch of rapids Xʷolólat, 'a roaring thing', and the same root sits inside their word for the bullroarer. One Roaring Riffle ran just below the meeting of the Bogachiel and the Calawah, where the river narrows and turns north.","pull_quote":"In the old days, it was used by shamans and weathermen to magically cause thunder or rain.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Jay Powell, The Talking Raven 8(11) (2014), pp. 8–9","term_gloss":"Xʷolólat: Quileute and Hoh name for rapids, 'a roaring thing'; its root xʷol- (or xʷob-) also occurs in the Quileute word for the bullroarer.","cls":"weather","class_label":"Weather / fertility magic","color":"#2F6FA3","is_candidate":false,"flags":["weather","toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Jay Powell, 'Hiba' Kwashkwash: The Jay Squawks,' The Talking Raven 8(11) (November 2014), pp. 8–9, §20 Roaring Riffle","url":"https://talkingraven.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/november_2014.pdf"},{"citation":"George A. Pettitt, The Quileute of La Push, 1775–1945, Anthropological Records 14(1) (1950), p. 12","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar014-002.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Jay Powell, 'Hiba' Kwashkwash: The Jay Squawks,' The Talking Raven 8(11) (November 2014), pp. 8–9, §20 Roaring Riffle; George A. Pettitt, The Quileute of La Push, 1775–1945, Anthropological Records 14(1) (1950), p. 12","source_display":"Jay Powell, 'Hiba' Kwashkwash: The Jay Squawks,' The Talking Raven 8(11) (November 2014), pp. 8–9, §20 Roaring Riffle; George A. Pettitt, The Quileute of La Push, 1775–1945, Anthropological Records 14(1) (1950), p. 12","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A thin piece of wood whirled overhead on a string, making a sound like thunder.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"quileute","display_name":"Quileute thunder-calling roarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/LOUD1929-001_plate48_full.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/LOUD1929-001_plate48_full_thumb.jpg","credit":"L. L. Loud and M. R. Harrington, Lovelock Cave (University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 25(1), 1929), Plate 48; Internet Archive scan","license":"Public domain (US publication, 1929)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/LovelockCaveLoudAndHarrington1929/page/n239/mode/1up","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Loud and Harrington's complete Plate 48, ‘Snares, wooden pendants, etc.’","pool_id":"auto-LOUD1929-001_plate48_full","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"powell2014-001-quileute"}