No. POWELL2014-001
Quileute thunder-calling roarer
United States · Washington · western Olympic Peninsula · Quillayute River (La Push) · North America · Northwest Coast
Weather / fertility magic
Source term: bull-roarer
Xʷolólat: Quileute and Hoh name for rapids, 'a roaring thing'; its root xʷol- (or xʷob-) also occurs in the Quileute word for the bullroarer.
Swung around the head, it made a sound like thunder, and in the old days Quileute shamans and weathermen used it to call down thunder or rain. Children whirled thin pieces of wood on strings simply for the hum. The sound is still written into the rivers: the Quileute and the Hoh both called a stretch of rapids Xʷolólat, 'a roaring thing', and the same root sits inside their word for the bullroarer. One Roaring Riffle ran just below the meeting of the Bogachiel and the Calawah, where the river narrows and turns north.
In the old days, it was used by shamans and weathermen to magically cause thunder or rain.
Jay Powell, The Talking Raven 8(11) (2014), pp. 8–9
Particulars
- Object
- A thin piece of wood whirled overhead on a string, making a sound like thunder.