No. GIFFORD1940-003
Four directions before the sickroom
United States · Strawberry Valley · Fossil Creek, Arizona · North America
Sacred / spirit
Source term: bull-roarer
Before he crossed the threshold, the curer turned. The Northern Tonto were the northernmost of the Western Apache, hunting and planting in the broken pine country at the head of the Verde — Fossil Creek, Strawberry Valley — and in the Strawberry Valley semiband a shaman took the bullroarer to a sick person's house and whirled it toward each of the four cardinal points before he went in. The blade was pine, ten inches by two, on three feet of cord. The four soundings came first; the treatment came after.
Particulars
- Object
- Pine blade about 10 by 2 inches, whirled on a cord about three feet long.
Source
E. W. Gifford, 'Culture Element Distributions: XII, Apache-Pueblo,' Anthropological Records 4:1 (1940), pp. 58-59 and 151-152