The Bullroarer Atlas

HAD1898-014 - museum specimen

Pima / Akimel O'odham

United States - North America - Southwest

Function not recorded

The Pima/Akimel O’odham Wihoewiketeke itself: painted slat, long cord, and separate handle, collected by H. Ten Kate and figured by Schmeltz in...
The Pima/Akimel O’odham Wihoewiketeke itself: painted slat, long cord, and separate handle, collected by H. Ten Kate and figured by Schmeltz in 1896. Wereldmuseum / NMVW (RV-362-54) CC BY-SA 4.0 Image source

Wihoewiketeke German; English; Dutch metadata

Source term: bull-roarer

Wihoewiketeke: name recorded by Schmeltz for both slats; whirled on a stick.

Red zigzags cross the long Pima blade; beside it lie the cord and wooden handle that once drove it through the air. H. Ten Kate collected the rig in the 1880s, and Schmeltz figured it in 1896 under the name Wihoewiketeke. The celebrated line about a hum that frightened evil spirits belongs to the Papago object collected with it; Haddon, citing the pair together, let the label spread to both, and the Pima blade has carried the borrowed story ever since.

Das zweite (Fig. 25; Inv.-No. 362/54) von den Pima zeigt scharfe Raender und gerade abgeschnittene Enden, es ist 39,4 cm lang, 2,4 cm breit und 1 cm dick, die Zeichnung besteht auf beiden Seiten aus einander kreuzenden rothen Zickzackstreifen und einzelnen rothen Flecken ohne weisse Untermalung.

The second (Fig. 25; Inv.-No. 362/54), from the Pima, has sharp edges and straight-cut ends; it is 39.4 cm long, 2.4 cm wide and 1 cm thick, the design on both sides consisting of crossing red zig-zag stripes and scattered red spots without white underpainting.

Schmeltz 1896, "Das Schwirrholz," p. 121 (Pima specimen, Inv.-No. 362/54)
Object
Wereldmuseum RV-362-54: a 39.4 cm Pima wooden slat with sharp edges, crossing red zigzags and spots, preserved with its long cord and separate handle.
Function
Function not recorded for this Pima object; Schmeltz documents its name, painted form, cord, and whirling handle.
Map confidence
medium_high - representative coordinate for named people, place, or region in Haddon
Source location
Schmeltz 1896:120-121, fig. 25; Wereldmuseum RV-362-54; Haddon 1898:294-295, fig. 40 no. 4

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