VOEGELIN1942-002 - ethnographic attestation
Hayfork Wintu (Trinity River Wintu)
United States - Hayfork Valley, Trinity County, northwestern California - North America
Weather / fertility magic
Source term: bull-roarer
A wooden blade at Hayfork did double duty: boys whirled it for fun, and its roar was credited with producing storm or wind. William 'Whiskey Bill' George, reared at Hayfork in the Trinity country and living there all his life, affirmed both uses to Erminie Voegelin in 1936, along with the rule that only boys and men handled it. When Robert Heizer later tallied California's bullroarers, he counted the Wintu twice — among the many peoples who made it a plaything, and among the scattered few who trusted it with the weather.
- Object
- Wooden bullroarer; no dimensions, cord detail, or Wintu name recorded.
- Function
- Produced storm or wind; also whirled by boys for amusement, and only boys and men used it.
- Map confidence
- medium - Hayfork, Trinity County community anchor — the informant's lifelong home and the band's namesake locality; not a performance site or findspot.
- Source location
- pp. 49, 94 (elements 2116-2123)
- Weather / fertility magic
- Toy / secular survival