RAY1942-003 - ethnographic attestation
Kutenai bull-roarer
Canada - Upper Kootenay River, southeastern British Columbia - North America - Plateau
Weather / fertility magic
Source term: bull-roarer
At the eastern edge of the Plateau, where the Kootenay runs down toward the Rockies, the bullroarer is built differently. Every other people in the region whirled the cord from the bare hand; the Kutenai alone swung theirs from a handle, a stick to whirl it by. Otherwise the Kutenai instrument did everything a Plateau roarer could do — wooden, of cedar, a child's toy, an influence on the weather; it called the Chinook and brought rain, and children sounded it when the old people asked them to. No other people on the Plateau held every one of those uses at once.
- Object
- A wooden blade whirled on a cord, fitted with a handle.
- Source
- Verner F. Ray, "Culture Element Distributions: XXII, Plateau," University of California Anthropological Records 8:2 (Berkeley, 1942), printed p. 184. The bullroarer block is elements 4094-4103 and Ray sub-divides the function, which is unusual: 4094 Bull-roarer; 4097 Deer rib; 4099 Child's toy; 4100 Influences the weather; 4101 "Calls" Chinook (warm) wind…
- Source location
- printed p. 184, elements 4094-4103
- Source confidence
- medium Upper Kootenay River near Cranbrook, southeastern British Columbia -- territory anchor, not a findspot.
- Weather magic
- Toy / secular survival