No. LOEB1929-030
Quinault toy bullroarer
United States · Washington coast · North America · Northwest Coast
Play / practical
Source term: bullroarer
For the Quinault of the Washington coast the bullroarer was a child's toy and nothing more. In the rites of their secret society the spirits spoke through rattles. Farther north, the Kwakiutl whirled the same instrument in secret during the winter dance, four times over, as the voice of the spirit come to carry off a novice.
Among the Quinault the novice is cut and bones are thrust through the flesh of the arms.
Edwin M. Loeb, Tribal Initiations and Secret Societies (1929), p. 274
Particulars
- Function
- A child's toy; rattles were the ceremonial sounder.
Source
Loeb 1929, Tribal Initiations and Secret Societies, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 25(3):249-288