STEWART1941-006 - ethnographic attestation
Toe-dokado ('tule eaters') Northern Paiute, Stillwater and Fallon
United States - Carson Sink, Carson Lake and the lower Carson River, western Nevada - North America - Great Basin
Weather / fertility magic
wimo'to English
Source term: bull-roarer (wimo'to)
Wimo'to / wimoto: the Northern Paiute bullroarer term; the modern dictionary entry for it is recorded in the Fallon dialect, which is this band's speech.
The tule eaters held the Carson Sink, and their roarer worked both sides of the line the eastern bands drew: it was a toy, and it was swung to bring the wind. Their country is also where the only mechanical description in the Northern Paiute lexicon comes from - a flat slat, the string tied at one end, twirled above the head - recorded from Wuzzie George in the Fallon dialect long after Stewart's visit. Neighbouring bands have been quoted on that description for want of one of their own. It was always this band's.
- Object
- A wooden whirrer; not described further.
- Function
- Swung both as a children's toy and to make the wind blow.
- Map confidence
- medium_high - Carson Sink and lower Carson River, the territory Stewart assigns the band; Stillwater and Fallon lie within it. Not a use site.
- Source location
Page references
Stewart 1941, pp. 363, 401, 403; Liljeblad, Fowler & Powell 2012, p. 670
- Weather magic
- Toy / secular survival