STEWART1941-005 - ethnographic attestation
Kuipa-dokado wimo'to of the Humboldt Sink
United States - Lower Humboldt River and Humboldt Sink, north-central Nevada - North America - Great Basin
Weather / fertility magic
wimo'to
Source term: bull-roarer (wimo'to)
Wimo'to: Stewart's survey-wide Northern Paiute element heading for the bullroarer.
The ground-squirrel eaters of the Humboldt Sink swung a wooden roarer to bring the wind — the eastern pattern, in which the instrument worked on the weather first. On whether children here were allowed one, the testimony splits both ways.
- Object
- A wooden whirrer; not described further.
- Function
- Swung to make the wind blow; also reported as a toy.
- Source
- Omer C. Stewart, Culture Element Distributions: XIV, Northern Paiute, Anthropological Records 4:3 (1941). Ku column, table p. 401: 1870 bull-roarer +, 1871 whirrer of wood +, 1872 of sheep horn -, 1873 used as toy starred minus, 1874 to make wind blow +. The star refers to the note at p. 438, which reads in full: '1873. Ku: + (AL).' Band and informants, p.…
- Source location
- Stewart 1941, pp. 363, 401, 403, 438
- Source confidence
- medium Humboldt Sink, the centre of the territory Stewart assigns the band; the Lovelock colony where he found them lies just northeast. Not a use site.
- Weather magic