Kinaupo, the mountain-men's initiation

Source term: bullroarer

kinaupo: the Southeastern Pomo Ghost ceremony; tsina mafon, 'mountain men': the ghosts; Huan xoi: the head, and the members, of the secret society; tenel: the rabbit-skin blanket of the novice.

During kinaupo, the Ghost initiation of the Southeastern Pomo at Elem on Clear Lake, a bullroarer sounded in the dance house. Every boy went through it. Tom Leon was about twelve when his elder brother brought him in; for four days he lay mostly under a rabbit-skin blanket, used a scratching stick, and drank water only morning and evening. The ghosts, tsina mafon or 'mountain men', ran in from the hills by day and night, in twig half-masks, painted black or white, some with fire in their hair. They swallowed glowing embers and threw the 'mean' boys over the fire. Some carried bull snakes and gopher snakes, which the firetender laid on the aching places of the sick before setting them free. The rite belonged to a society headed by the Huan xoi, an office that passed to a man's sister's son and stood apart from the village chiefs.

The bullroarer was sounded during the Ghost ceremony, but my informant forgot the name of the instrument.

Loeb, "The Western Kuksu Cult" (1932), p. 127 (Southeastern Pomo).

Particulars

Object

Bullroarer sounded in the Southeastern Pomo Ghost ceremony (kinaupo); its name was forgotten and its form is not described.