294 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.54. 



disk producing a buzzing sound. The instrument is familiar as a toy 

 of civilized children, and the Hopi probably have received it from 

 the while man, especially since it has not become a part of the 

 religious paraphernalia (see pi. 47, fig. 4). 



One of the simplest yet most remarkable and very widely diffused 

 instruments of music is the bullroarer, the rhombus of the ancient 

 Greeks, consisting of a tablet of wood whirled through the air by 

 a free-arm movement at the end of a string, producing an awesome 

 groaning sound (pi. 51, fig. 6). The Hopi bullroarer is used ex- 

 clusively in religious ceremonies, following in this respect its em- 

 ployment by almost all peoples, now or formerly. In civilization 

 the instrument sometimes continues its usefulness as a child's toy. 

 There is evidence of its antiquity in the Pueblo region.^ The Hopi 

 bullroarer is a rather thick tablet, pointed or terraced, usually at 

 one end, supplied with a cotton string sometimes tied to a short 

 handle. It is painted with white, red, black, or other pigment and 

 decorated with the lightning symbol. In the Snake Dance it is in- 

 trusted to the war priest, who whirls it vigorously for a short interval 

 at the commencement of the open-air ceremony of both the Snake 

 and Antelope Fraternities. It is used also in the Soyal and other 

 ceremonies. In all cases it is kept a mystery. The Hopi associate 

 the sound with meteoric phenomena, and its use may be in effect an 

 incantation to bring rainstorms. 



The Hopi drum has a shell of cottonwood taken from a decayed 

 tree trunk, and in most cases little modified by artifice, the shell thus 

 showing irregularities of the surface and diameter of the tree. The 

 heads are circular pieces of goatskin from which the hair has been 

 removed ; the skin is cut larger than the diameter of the shell, damp- 

 ened, lashed on by a continuous thong, passed through holes cut 

 alternately in the edge of the skin and fastened off. Sometimes a 

 thong turned over each member of the lacing is passed around the 

 middle of the drum. A thong for suspending the drum is tied in 

 the lacing. The stick is short and has a padded beater of cloth tied 

 on with string, and the drum is struck in the center of the head. 

 One of the heads is often decorated with four animal figures. The 

 Hopi drums in the United States National Museum are from 8 to 15 

 inches high, and from 12 to 18 inches in diameter. The native name 

 is pur shuJc pi po ya. A thin two-head, properly a tambourine, is 

 also used. It has a shell of cottonwood 3 inches high and 16 inches 

 in diameter. The heads of goatskin, lashed on as in the large drum, 

 are decorated with a symbolic design representing a sun shield. 

 There is no evidence of the antiquity of the wooden shell drum among 



1 Hough, Bull. 87, U. S. Nat. Mus., 1914, pi. 26. 



