No. GIFFORD1940-001
The clown announces the gan
United States · White River and Fort Apache country, east-central Arizona · North America · Southwest
Sacred / spirit
Source term: bull-roarer
The clown went first: whirling a bullroarer, he announced that the masked gan impersonators — the Mountain Spirit dancers — were coming, then kept it sounding through the dance itself. The foot-long ash or gaspome blade was always swung in the open, where anyone could watch.
clown whirled bull-roarer to announce masked gan impersonators, after that whirled during dance.
Gifford 1940:152
Particulars
- Object
- Blade of ash or gaspome wood, about 12 by 3 inches, whirled on a cord about three feet long; not made of lightning-struck wood.
- Function
- A clown whirled it to announce the masked gan impersonators, then kept whirling it during the dance; used publicly and in view, not for curing.
Source
E. W. Gifford, Culture Element Distributions: XII, Apache-Pueblo, Anthropological Records 4:1 (1940), pp. 2, 58-59, 151-152