No. STEWART1942-003
Timpanogots Ute horn-bladed bullroarer
United States · Utah Lake shores and Wasatch canyons, Utah · North America · Great Basin
Sacred / spirit
nia'monöpö
Source term: Bull-roarer: of mt. sheep horn; of rawhide
nia'monöpö: the Timpanogots term for the bull-roarer in Stewart's comparative vocabulary (shared with the Taviwatsiu); no literal gloss is given.
The fish-eaters of Utah Lake — the Lagunas whom Escalante met in 1776 — cut their bull-roarer blades not from wood but from mountain-sheep horn or rawhide. Children swung the nia'monöpö for fun; the summer-born swung it in earnest, to raise wind and sweep clouds from the sky, for it obeyed no one born in any other season. It also lay among a shaman's paraphernalia, beside the doctor's stick, tobacco, and pollen.
Used effectively only by people born in summer.
Stewart 1942:291, element 2802
Particulars
- Object
- Whirrer cut from mountain-sheep horn or rawhide, swung on a string with a wooden handle; a wooden blade was denied.
- Function
- A toy; also whirled to make wind blow and clear away clouds, effective only for people born in summer, and kept among a shaman's paraphernalia.
Source
Omer C. Stewart, Culture Element Distributions: XVIII, Ute-Southern Paiute, Anthropological Records 6(4) (1942), pp. 236, 238, 291, 315 and 352