Hoyék, Welán's song at the Naikoi

hoyék

Source term: palo zumbador

hoyék: the Wichí name for the whirled board. Naikoi: the shamans' consecration dance for a novice. Welán: the possessing being whose song the roarer repeats. jayawú: shamans.

At dusk the jayawú, the Wichí shamans, plant staffs in a circle around one who is 'sick with Welán', a novice seized by a being who can take human, animal or plant form. To rattles of deer hooves the novice sings and leaps, higher and higher, until collapsing; a helper catches the fallen body and cradles its head, and when the novice comes round it all begins again, through the night and for weeks. Between the leaps the possessed one takes up the hoyék, a board on a cord tied to a stick, and whirls it overhead in an intense roar. The rattles talk with Welán; the roarer repeats his song. Whoever outlasts the possessions comes out of it thin and yellowed, a shaman.

el sujeto lo hace girar encima de la cabeza produciendo un zumbido muy intenso

the subject whirls it above his head, producing a very intense hum

Mario Califano, 'El chamanismo mataco' (1976), p. 27

Particulars

Object

A rectangular wooden board about 40 × 10 cm, tied by a 50 cm cord to a handle about 60 cm long.

Function

Whirled overhead at intervals by the novice possessed by Welán during the Naikoi, the night-long ceremony that makes a shaman; it repeats Welán's song while the rattles converse with him.