Giant Spider's whirled lure (Dunne-za)

Source term: bullroarer

In Dunne-za story, the Giant Spider lured people to a mountain top by whirling a roarer around his head. Drawn by the sound of his stretched thread, they approached; he killed them and sucked out their body fluids. Among the Dunne-za, a person whose power came from Giant Spider could not hear any sound made by a stretched string or hide: it could wake the monster within him and make him wechuge, a cannibal. When Ridington put country music on the car radio while driving the Dreamer Charlie Yahey, a young man reached over and switched it off. Once in a cafe a jukebox began playing guitar music and Yahey grew 'too strong'; he was hustled into the bush, where another person sang a medicine song to overcome the monster emerging inside him.

Particulars

Object

Swung on a line around the head, its voice that of a stretched spider thread.

Function

In story, swung by the cannibal Giant Spider on a mountain top to draw people within reach, whereupon he killed them and drank their body fluids. Among living people the corollary is a prohibition: anyone whose power comes from Giant Spider must not hear the sound of a stretched string or a stretched hide, or he becomes wechuge.