No. RAY1942-001
Kittitas bull-roarer
United States · Kittitas Valley, Yakima River, central Washington · North America · Plateau
Weather / fertility magic
Source term: bull-roarer
The Kittitas bullroarer was cedar, sometimes deer rib, whirled on a cord held in the bare hand. It was a child's toy. It influenced the weather. It called the Chinook, the warm wind that comes in off the Pacific and takes the winter apart, and it brought rain. And it was sounded by children at the request of their elders — the fact that undoes the others: the thing was in a child's hands, but the decision to sound it was not the child's to make.
Particulars
- Object
- Recorded in two forms, a wooden blade of cedar and one of deer rib, whirled on a cord held in the hand without a handle.
- Function
- A child's toy that is also a weather instrument: it calls the Chinook, the warm wind, and brings rain, and children sound it at the request of their elders.
Source
Verne F. Ray, 'Culture Element Distributions: XXII, Plateau,' Anthropological Records 8:2 (Berkeley, 1942), p. 184, elements 4094-4103