MUS2026-139 - museum specimen
Nivala suhistuspuu herding bull-roarer (K7145:6)
Finland - Pohjois-Pohjanmaa (North Ostrobothnia) - Nivala - Northern Europe
Play / practical
suhistuspuu Finnish
Source term: suhistuspuu; hyrrä (catalog heading)
suhistuspuu = "whirring-wood" (suhista, to whirr/swish + puu, wood)
In 1928 Kustaa Vilkuna brought the Finnish National Museum a suhistuspuu from his native Nivala: a dark 26-centimetre slat on a 77-centimetre braided cord, ending in a small wooden handle. Children whirled the “whirring-wood” for fun; herders used its noise to frighten cattle out of crops and drive them home.
Eräänlainen suhistuspuu, jota lapset pyörittelevät huvikseen ja jolla paimenet pelottelevat lehmiä.
A kind of whirring-wood that children spin for amusement and with which herders frighten the cows.
Suomen kansallismuseo, catalogue entry K7145:6 (via Finna)
- Object
- Dark wooden slat 26 cm long, pierced at one end for a 77 cm braided cord that ends in a wood splint (päre); the splint is used to whirl the blade. Suomen kansallismuseo K7145:6, ethnological collections, accessioned 1928 through Kustaa Vilkuna.
- Function
- Whirled by children for amusement and by herders to frighten cows out of crops and toward home — a working noisemaker as much as a toy.
- Map confidence
- high - Sarjankylä village centre, Nivala (OSM); the record names the village explicitly.
- Source location
- K7145:6
- Toy / secular survival