A shriek inside the women's circle

na-ni-muit (Na-mi-mu-it); nanimutanimpi

Source term: musical instrument; bullroarer

na-ni-muit (Na-mi-mu-it): Powell's Numic name for the whirled instrument. we-wi-wi: to whirl the na-ni-muit. nanimutanimpi: the same instrument as named in Carroll's account.

The women formed a circle and danced slowly, shuffling. Inside it the men stood on their toes, heels turned out and bodies bent forward, then leapt high into the air, yelling and whirling an instrument that gave out a curious shriek. This was a dance of the Numa, the Utes and Paiutes of the canyon and desert country, in the years between 1868 and 1880. The instrument was the na-ni-muit, a small tablet with notched edges, tied by a string to a stick two or three feet long and swung through the air to whirr. To swing it was we-wi-wi.

whirling a musical instrument [probably a Na-mi-mu-it] which they hold in their hands and which gives out a curious shriek

J. W. Powell, MS 798, p. 12, in Fowler and Fowler, Anthropology of the Numa (1971), pp. 64–65, as quoted by Carroll (2005), p. 200.

Particulars

Object

A small notch-edged wooden tablet tied by a string to a stick two or three feet long; elsewhere described as a flat piece of juniper on an end string.

Function

Whirled by men leaping and yelling inside a circle of women dancing a slow shuffle.