STEWART1941-008 - ethnographic attestation
Sawawaktodo-tuviwarai ('sagebrush-mountain dwellers') Northern Paiute
United States - Middle Humboldt River around Winnemucca, north-central Nevada - North America - Great Basin
Weather / fertility magic
wimo'to English
Source term: bull-roarer (wimo'to)
Wimo'to: Stewart's survey-wide Northern Paiute element heading for the bullroarer.
Along the middle Humboldt the roarer was for wind and not for children — the eastern Northern Paiute pattern. The testimony behind it is the shakiest in the region, but what it says matches what three neighbouring bands said separately, and it is the agreement with the neighbours, not the testimony alone, that carries the weight.
- Object
- A wooden whirrer; not described further.
- Function
- Swung to make the wind blow; toy use denied.
- Map confidence
- low_medium - Middle Humboldt River near Winnemucca, where both. Territory anchor for the named people; not a use site.
- Source location
- Stewart 1941, pp. 364, 401, 403
- Weather magic