Kalispel bull-roarer

Source term: bull-roarer

The Kalispel had the bullroarer — cedar, whirled from the hand without a handle — and it was a child's toy, and nothing more: the weather use was denied outright. That refusal is worth as much as an assent. All around the Kalispel are peoples who used the instrument on the sky — the Kittitas and Wenatchi to the west calling the Chinook, the Kutenai to the east doing the same — and here, in between, the weather function stops. It is a boundary drawn from the inside, by people in a position to know, and it means the Plateau's weather province has an edge rather than simply fading out where knowledge does.

Particulars

Object

A wooden blade, of cedar, whirled on a cord held in the hand.