Kato telbut, the poisoner's pointer

telbut

Source term: bull-roarer

telbut: the Kato (Cahto) word for the bullroarer, made of black oak or madroña.

Among the Kato, a telbut, the wooden bullroarer that roared in the boys' winter school, could also be aimed like a weapon. A poisoner dipped it in poison and pointed it at an enemy far away, to shoot sickness into him across the distance; a flint knife, a split-stick rattle or a coyote's leg bone and sinew served the same end. Poisoners were bound up with rattlesnakes: ground rattlesnake went into their poisons, and any man caught killing rattlesnakes was suspected of the craft. The telbut, cut from black oak or madroña, was kept under the foot drum in the dance house, and women and children were not to see it. The Kato said their poisoning owed much to the Pomo, whose poisoners they and their neighbours hired.

Pointed at distant enemies to "poison" them.

Essene, "Culture Element Distributions: XXI—Round Valley" (1942), p. 24, element 977 (Kato).

Particulars

Object

A wooden bullroarer (telbut) of black oak or madroña, kept under the foot drum; in poisoning it was dipped and pointed, not whirled.

Function

Dipped in poison and pointed at distant enemies to shoot sickness into them; only men worked it and women and children might not see it.