No. GIFFORD1940-008
A death omen on the cord
United States · Tohatchi, New Mexico · North America
Sacred / spirit
Source term: bull-roarer
The instrument gave the verdict. Among the Eastern Navajo around Tohatchi, under the Chuska range in northwestern New Mexico, a curer whirling the bullroarer over a patient was also reading it: if the blade slipped its cord, or if it turned in the air and made no sound at all, the sick person was doomed. It was a small thing to carry that much weight — eight inches of lightning-struck wood, an inch and a quarter wide, on four feet of cord — and its silence was the answer nobody wanted.
Particulars
- Object
- Blade of lightning-struck wood, about 8 by 1.25 inches, whirled on a cord about four feet long.
- Function
- Whirled in curing; if it came off the cord or failed to sound, the patient was held to be doomed.
Source
E. W. Gifford, 'Culture Element Distributions: XII, Apache-Pueblo,' Anthropological Records 4:1 (1940), pp. 58-59 and 151-152