The Bullroarer Atlas

MINE2026-077 - ethnographic attestation

Northern Saulteaux (Ojibwe)

Canada - Northern Saulteaux country, northwestern Ontario - North America - Subarctic

Weather / fertility magic

An Anishinaabe bull-roarer from Lac Seul, Ontario: a scallop-edged wooden blade on a cord tied to a slender handle, meant to be swung overhead...
Representative image. An Anishinaabe bull-roarer from Lac Seul, Ontario: a scallop-edged wooden blade on a cord tied to a slender handle, meant to be swung overhead like a sling. Skinner described the type among the Northern Saulteaux generally but did not photograph the specific instrument. Canadian Museum of History, III-G-372 a-b Image source

Source term: bull roarer

The Northern Saulteaux were Ojibwe communities of the lake-and-forest country north of Lake Superior and east of Lake Winnipeg, closely connected with their Eastern Cree neighbours. Hunters carried a serrated wooden bullroarer on a yard of cord and swung it overhead “to bring the wind.” The wind they wanted was the north wind—the best hunting wind. The same instrument could also be sounded simply for amusement.

Bull roarers of several kinds not only serve as amusements but are carried by hunters, who use them to bring the wind.

Alanson Skinner, Notes on the Eastern Cree and Northern Saulteaux (1911), p. 141; north-wind context p. 148.
Object
Edge-serrated wooden blade on roughly a yard of cord, swung around the head from a short hand grip.
Function
Carried by hunters to bring the wind, especially the north wind valued for hunting; also sounded for amusement.
Map confidence
high - Natural Resources Canada official Wabigoon Lake geographic-name record; a documented locality of Skinner's fieldwork used as a regional anchor - the bullroarer passage itself names no community.
Source location
pp. 141, 148

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