MINE2026-075 - ethnographic attestation
Elko and Battle Mountain Shoshoni wind bullroarer
United States - Elko and Battle Mountain, Humboldt River, Nevada - North America - Great Basin
Weather / fertility magic
nui; tsahanunu English
Source term: bull-roarer
nui (Elko) and tsahanunu (Battle Mountain), the two names Steward records at printed p. 250. nui is transparently 'play' - the same page glosses the Ruby Valley and Snake River word for an unbaked-clay doll as nui (play) dua (child) - so the Elko name for the instrument is, literally, the plaything.
Along the Humboldt River, the Nevada Shoshoni swung the bullroarer at the weather from both ends of the year. At Elko, anyone might sound one in early spring to bring the warm wind; downstream at Battle Mountain, boys swung theirs in hot weather to set the air moving. Steward set both practices down in a single line of his 1941 survey.
S-Elko: anyone may use bull-roarer in early spring to bring warm wind. S-BtlM: boys used it to make wind blow during hot weather.
Steward 1941:347, item 1874.
- Object
- At Battle Mountain, a whirrer made from an antelope patella, hung on a string from a stick handle and called tsahanunu; Steward gives no description of the Elko instrument.
- Function
- At Elko, anyone could use the bullroarer in early spring to bring warm wind; at Battle Mountain, boys used it in hot weather to make the wind blow.
- Map confidence
- high - Elko anchor for a two-town Humboldt River attestation (Elko and Battle Mountain); Steward gives town-level localities only.
- Source location
Page references
p. 347, item 1874; description printed p. 250
- Weather magic