RAY1942-007 - ethnographic attestation
Lower Thompson bull-roarer
Canada - Fraser Canyon below Lytton, southern British Columbia - North America - Plateau
Play / practical
Source term: bull-roarer
The Thompson River people had two whirling instruments, not one. James Teit knew a disc bored with two holes and set spinning by twisting a doubled cord — a buzzer, worked between the hands. The Lower Thompson of the late 1930s had something else besides: a wooden blade of cedar swung on a cord held in the hand, a child's toy — a true bullroarer. Two different objects among one people, each with its own motion and its own noise.
- Object
- A wooden blade, of cedar, whirled on a cord held in the hand.
- 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 Fraser Canyon below Lytton, southern British Columbia -- Lower Thompson territory anchor, not a findspot.
- Toy / secular survival