TL;DR

  • Tó Nilt’į́į́h / Tsénilyáʼí names the last masked dancer in the Night Chant line-up—clown, rain-maker, and stand-in for “Five-Fingered Earth-Surface People.”1
  • He alone wields the bull-roarer (tsin ndiʼniʼ, “groaning stick”), a lightning-felled pine blade soaked in medicine and whirled to open ritual space.2
  • Primary sources from Washington Matthews (1902), Franciscan Fathers (1910), and Gladys Reichard (1950) detail his songs, jokes, and social-corrective antics.
  • The roarer’s sound is treated as the voice of Holy People yet simultaneously satirizes humanity’s disharmony—hence the elder’s gloss, “that awful sound is us.”3
  • Comparative Athabaskan and Pueblo evidence shows the Diné retained but moralized an older pan-Southwest bull-roarer complex.

1  |  Names, Etymology & Position in the Night Chant

1.1 Variant spellings & why they matter#

Early phonetic notebooks render the clown-figure as “Tsénilyáʼí” (“One-who-lies-down [and pops back up]”) while modern singers favour Tó Nilt’į́į́h—probably a sandhi form of Tó Neinilii (“Water-Sprinkler”). Matthews records him simply as Tonenili, “the Rain Fool.”4
Both names encode fluidity: water, laughter, social looseness. That looseness is critical; he personifies the Earth People (bílaʼashdlaʼii, ‘five-fingered folk’), forever slipping out of step with the disciplined Holy People row.5

1.2 Macro-role inside the Yeibichai line#

A Night Chant hogan holds fourteen masks. Talking-God (Hashchʼé Yáltíʼ) leads, eleven “House Gods” flank, and last comes Tó Nilt’į́į́h, instantly recognizable by:

Iconic traitRitual rationaleSource
No crown of eagle feathers; instead a tufted clown hoodMarks him as ordinary human, not sky-dwellerMatthews 19024
Carries bull-roarer and ash-stickOpens portals & later “presses” patient’s limbsFranciscan Fathers 19102
Performs off-beat gags: falling down, flirting, mock theftMoral mirror; exposes lapses in hózhó (balance)Reichard 1950 I:763-7716

2  |  The Bull-Roarer (tsin ndiʼniʼ) in Diné Practice

2.1 Construction & emplacement#

Ethnographers agree on a remarkably strict spec: a lightning-splintered piñon or ponderosa plank, elliptical, ~23 cm long, front inlaid with turquoise eyes/mouth, back capped with abalone “pillow,” finished in yucca pitch and charcoal.27
A rain-buckskin thong threads the butt; both stick and cord are dipped in the medicine bowl, then the clown circles the hogan, whirling the roarer until its doppler groan seals the perimeter against malign spirits.2

“Only the five-fingered man may whirl it; the gods would shatter its breath.” —Male Shootingway commentary7

2.2 Sound-symbolism#

Acoustic physics: rotation shifts between 65 – 140 Hz; the sub-audible beat carries far across canyon floors—useful for “calling cloud-people,” singers say.8
Mythic reading: the roaring is the first thunder given to Earth People; by misusing it (annoying noise, conflict), we betray our gift. Yet each chant reenacts a reset: the clown roars, then re-joins the orderly file, teaching repentance through mimicry.

2.3 Therapeutic use#

After the perimeter circuit the same stick becomes a massage tool. The chanter presses its turquoise face along the patient’s limbs, “drawing out” alien wind and paralysis.2 Modern hatałii still prefer it for stroke-like ailments.9

3  |  Exegesis: Why a Human Clown Wields God-Thunder#

  1. Didactic inversion – Holy People keep perfect hózhó, so they outsource the messy noise to humanity; the clown caricatures our errors so we see them.3
  2. Chain-of-gifts – Changing Woman vowed that the eighth Beauty-Way ceremony would be “brought by a man.” Tó Nilt’į́į́h’s roarer, a literal man-made thunder, fulfils that pledge, anchoring Peace-Speaker rites.3
  3. Atmospheric magnet – In Pueblo & Apache crown dances the bull-roarer summons cloud beings. Diné ritual retains that physics but frames it ethically: clouds only heed a penitent roar.10

4  |  Comparative & Contemporary Notes#

  • Apache Crown Dancers: a fifth dancer (clown) spins a bull-roarer to chase evil, almost identical staging.10
  • Global parallels: Greek rhombos, Australian turndun, Amazonian hori-hori – all link roar to storm or spirit entry, hinting at Upper-Paleolithic origin.8
  • Present day: Diné cultural instructors like Wally Brown still demonstrate the roarer but forbid public whirling outside ceremony; recording its sound is taboo on the Navajo Nation.3

FAQ#

Q1. Is Tó Nilt’į́į́h the same as Coyote? A. No. Coyote (Maʼii) is a mythic trickster; Tó Nilt’į́į́h is a ritual clown inside a specific chantway, closer to a liturgical role than a cosmogenic prankster.

Q2. Why must the wood be struck by lightning? A. Lightning imbues objects with nilchʼi (living wind). Using such wood ensures the roarer already carries the sky-people’s breath, easing their arrival.

Q3. Can non-Navajo craft or spin a bull-roarer? A. Craft, yes—many cultures do—but among Diné it is restricted medicine gear. Whirling it outside a sing is disrespectful and believed to attract harmful winds.

Q4. Does the roarer literally “represent humans”? A. In chant symbolism it embodies human foibles: noise, distraction, fickleness. Thus the elder’s gloss “that awful sound is us” is both metaphor and moral cue.

Footnotes#

Sources#

  1. Matthews, Washington. The Night Chant: A Navaho Ceremony. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 6, 1902.
  2. Franciscan Fathers. An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language. St. Michaels Mission, 1910.
  3. Reichard, Gladys A. Navajo Religion: A Study of Symbolism. 2 vols. Princeton University Press, 1950.
  4. Griffen-Pierce, Trudy. Earth Is My Mother, Sky Is My Father: Space, Time, and Astronomy in Navajo Sandpainting. University of New Mexico Press, 1992.
  5. Powell, J.W. Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1883-84. GPO, 1884.
  6. Brown, Wally. “What Is the Yei Bi Chei? Who Is the Clown?” Navajo Traditional Teachings (video, 2023).
  7. Twin Rocks Trading Post. “Navajo Bull Roarer or Groaning Stick.” https://twinrocks.com/legends/arts-crafts-trades/navajo-bull-roarer-or-groaning-stick.html.
  8. 9Ways Academia. “Bullroarer.” https://www.9ways.org/sound-glossary/bullroarer (2025).
  9. Wilson, Wayne. “Greetings from My Indigenous Culture—Diné.” Baha’iTeachings.org, 2018.
  10. “Tó Neinilii.” Wikipedia, last mod. 11 May 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B3_Neinilii.

  1. Young, R.W. & Morgan, W. The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary, UNM Press 1987; see entry Tó Neinilii. ↩︎

  2. “Navajo Bull Roarer or Groaning Stick.” Twin Rocks Trading Post legend page, accessed Aug 2025. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. Brown, Wally. “What Is the Yei Bi Chei? Who Is the Clown?” Navajo Traditional Teachings (YouTube, 2023). ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. Matthews, Washington. The Night Chant: A Navaho Ceremony. Memoirs of the AMNH 6 (1902). ↩︎ ↩︎

  5. Wilson, Wayne. “Greetings from My Indigenous Culture,” Baha’iTeachings.org (2018). ↩︎

  6. Reichard, ibid., vol. I, pp. 763-771. ↩︎

  7. Powell, J.W. Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1884), 477. Quoted in Creek Stewart “Master the Bullroarer” sheet. ↩︎ ↩︎

  8. “Bullroarer.” Wikipedia (rev. May 2025). ↩︎ ↩︎

  9. Reichard, Gladys. Navajo Religion: A Study of Symbolism, vol. II. Princeton UP, 1950, pp. 1343-45. ↩︎

  10. “Apache Crown Dancers.” Field notes excerpt in WorldCometoMyHome blog (2016). ↩︎ ↩︎