WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Aztec Death Whistle

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<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff, Josh, Chuck, Jerry,

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<v Speaker 1>and for Dave, this is short stuff stand back.

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<v Speaker 2>That's right about the as Tech death whistle. We talked

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<v Speaker 2>a lot about Mexico City one of our favorite places

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<v Speaker 2>to visit. And if you go to Mexico City, you

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<v Speaker 2>should know that you are a lot of times standing

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<v Speaker 2>on the ruins of ancient burial temples as tech temples,

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<v Speaker 2>and they have excavated those over the years here and there.

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<v Speaker 2>And in the late nineties they excavated a temple dedicated

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<v Speaker 2>to the az Tech win God, and they uncovered the

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<v Speaker 2>remains of a twenty year old male that was beheaded,

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<v Speaker 2>squatting at the base of the stairway and holding a

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<v Speaker 2>couple of musical instruments.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, as an aside, I just wanted to say, I

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<v Speaker 1>think I've said it before, the Anthropological Museum in Mexico

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<v Speaker 1>City is world class.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's on my list. It'll happen next time, for sure.

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<v Speaker 1>It's great for that very reason, because there's so many

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<v Speaker 1>ruins just built right over and preserved in that way.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, think about it. Mexico City's one of the

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<v Speaker 1>most densely populated cities on the planet and people were

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<v Speaker 1>walking over a beheaded skeleton every day until the late

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<v Speaker 1>nineties when they excavated it. You know, yeah, so yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>you said that boy. Did you say he was holding

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<v Speaker 1>whistles or did you just say he was holding something?

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<v Speaker 2>I said musical instruments, but you yeah, there you go.

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<v Speaker 2>They're whistles.

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<v Speaker 1>Whistles. I mean you could have guessed that from the title, right, probably,

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<v Speaker 1>but these whistles are special whistles. First of all, they're

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<v Speaker 1>kind of tiny, but if you look closely, they had

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<v Speaker 1>a skull engraved on them. And what they think this

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<v Speaker 1>whole thing represents is the kind of union or combination

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<v Speaker 1>between he Coddle and mclonticulty. These are two gods. Miclonticulty

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<v Speaker 1>is the Aztec god of the underworld and death. Hey,

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<v Speaker 1>Coddle is the Aztec win god. And you put them together,

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<v Speaker 1>you got two very powerful gods. And they think that's

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<v Speaker 1>what these death whistles that the guy was holding symbolized.

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<v Speaker 2>Nice job in those pronunciations.

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<v Speaker 1>I really looked it up. Yeah, and dude, you should

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<v Speaker 1>see how many mispronounced words there are that they just

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<v Speaker 1>sound so confident. There's one, uh, there's a festival called

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<v Speaker 1>push coddle, toush coddle, t O x c A t L.

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<v Speaker 1>You have no idea how many like how's it pronounced? Videos?

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<v Speaker 1>Say tx coddle, it's not tox coddle.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's pretty disappointing. You're not stuff out there.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>And if you're not sure how to pronounce something, don't

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<v Speaker 1>make a video telling other people how to pronounce something.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I mean, we mispronounced stuff on this show, worldwide show,

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<v Speaker 2>but we don't tell people we're pronouncing it right exactly.

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<v Speaker 1>This isn't like how pronunciation works.

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<v Speaker 2>Come on, So this is the Aztec death whistle. Those

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<v Speaker 2>two whistles this guy had. If you do a little research,

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<v Speaker 2>you're probably going to see stuff about how they were

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<v Speaker 2>used to tear enemies in battle, like they all play

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<v Speaker 2>them at once. But what we think we've come down to,

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<v Speaker 2>thanks to you know, the study of a lot of people,

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<v Speaker 2>but especially this one guy, Arned Both, who is a

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<v Speaker 2>music archaeologist, is that these things probably were a little

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<v Speaker 2>more ceremonial, right, and maybe used to help guide the

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<v Speaker 2>spirit in the afterlife. So this dude, I don't know

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<v Speaker 2>if he's a doctor or not, but Both is his name,

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<v Speaker 2>Like I said, it's very cool. He's examined ancient musical

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<v Speaker 2>instruments and artifacts, tries to in a lot of cases

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<v Speaker 2>rebuild them and take some good guesses on what they

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<v Speaker 2>were used for.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, which is I'm sure way harder than you would think.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>So these those two death whistles were excavated in the

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<v Speaker 1>late nineties, I think in just a couple of years

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<v Speaker 1>later in the aughts. But did you say booth, I

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<v Speaker 1>said both both. He was the first person to actually

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<v Speaker 1>play them, these things that were hundreds and hundreds of

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<v Speaker 1>years old, that a skeleton had been holding for god

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<v Speaker 1>knows how long, well hundreds of years, and he apparently didn't.

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<v Speaker 1>He was like, these they suck, These are terrible death whistles.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it was a little underwhelming. It didn't make the big,

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<v Speaker 2>frightening noise they might have expected. So he did CT

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<v Speaker 2>scans on them, rebuilt them larger, like, you know, exact replicas,

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<v Speaker 2>and he found that they were an air spring whistle.

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<v Speaker 2>So the Mayans had come up with these in seven

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<v Speaker 2>to eight hundred CE, and you blow air through this

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<v Speaker 2>intake tube and it reacts with the spring of air

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<v Speaker 2>inside this chamber and distorts the sound. Then you can

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<v Speaker 2>cup your hand over the bottom like a lot of

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<v Speaker 2>wind instruments and change the tone and stuff, but it's

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<v Speaker 2>completely its own thing. It's not like any Western any

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<v Speaker 2>other Western wind instrument.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they were only made in pre Columbian America. That's

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<v Speaker 1>they are very specific. And spring in this case is

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<v Speaker 1>not like a coiled spring. It's like a spring of

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<v Speaker 1>water that you get delicious water from. Right, That's right. So,

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<v Speaker 1>like I said, there's a big wait, We'll just take a.

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<v Speaker 3>Break, how about that. Yeah, we'll be right back, okay, Chuck.

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<v Speaker 1>So I said, there's a big, strong connection, as I

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<v Speaker 1>was saying before before we broke between the wind god

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<v Speaker 1>mclonticulty and a caddal and I wasn't lying. There's written

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<v Speaker 1>proof that shows that I'm correct.

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<v Speaker 2>That's right. It's written in a pre Columbian document called

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<v Speaker 2>the Codex Borgia, and it is a manuscript. It's illustrated,

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<v Speaker 2>and it shows. It's got a lot of stuff in there.

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<v Speaker 2>It's got history, it's got like some of the things

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<v Speaker 2>that were studying, like botany, the stars, and it's got

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<v Speaker 2>a great, big, comprehensive list of their pantheon of gods.

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<v Speaker 1>And the top notch mushroom soup casserole recipe.

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<v Speaker 2>It might. For all I know, I can't tell anymore.

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<v Speaker 1>So Miquelon Ticulti and a Coddal I just like saying

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<v Speaker 1>them now, I know now that I can say them correctly.

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<v Speaker 1>They're back to back, arms crossed like local anchored.

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<v Speaker 2>Did they invent that?

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<v Speaker 1>I think so? God both looking at the at you,

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<v Speaker 1>the viewer, almost with a sassy kind of look on

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<v Speaker 1>their face. Sure, and they are guarding the underworld together.

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<v Speaker 1>So these these guys are definitely connected in the Aztec pantheon,

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<v Speaker 1>which goes to support That's what those death whistles are

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<v Speaker 1>kind of symbolizing, these two gods together that in one

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<v Speaker 1>interpretation at least, you could say is life and death.

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<v Speaker 1>The god of life the god of death.

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<v Speaker 2>That's right, So I mentioned it may be used to

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<v Speaker 2>kind of guide you through the spirit world in that

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<v Speaker 2>Aztec tradition, when someone dies, it's a pretty perilous route

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<v Speaker 2>to get to the underworld takes nine years, yeah, nine years,

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<v Speaker 2>And there's all kinds of rituals that people in the

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<v Speaker 2>living world do to urge them on to give them strength.

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<v Speaker 2>One example here in this case it's pretty appropriate, is

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<v Speaker 2>the dead cross a large field being whipped by a wind,

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<v Speaker 2>like a really fierce wind. And in that book, in

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<v Speaker 2>the Codex Borgia, those winds are represented by blades, by

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<v Speaker 2>obsidian blades, and those were the blades that they used

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<v Speaker 2>to make sacrifices. You go back to this temple site

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<v Speaker 2>where they found these whistles, and not only did they

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<v Speaker 2>have those whistles, but there was a ceramic bowl there

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<v Speaker 2>as well that had obsidian blades next to the body

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<v Speaker 2>of this guy.

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<v Speaker 1>And a little sign that said take one, leave one.

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<v Speaker 1>So this, I mean, all of this together just basically

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<v Speaker 1>shows this is what those death whistles almost certainly were.

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<v Speaker 1>And the reason that we're not just us, but both

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<v Speaker 1>in particular Booth or both the music archaeologists, is going

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<v Speaker 1>to all this trouble is because we don't know exactly

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<v Speaker 1>what these things were used for, how they were used,

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<v Speaker 1>what they were meant to sound like. We just don't know.

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<v Speaker 1>So you have to piece together all this disparate information

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<v Speaker 1>to kind of come together. And what it ultimately is

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<v Speaker 1>laying a pretty good case for is that these were

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<v Speaker 1>ritual musical instruments used in a specific ritual, probably like

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<v Speaker 1>you said, to help departed souls across that field, that

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<v Speaker 1>one level of the underworld.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the wind.

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<v Speaker 1>And then also in that festival, I talked about touch

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<v Speaker 1>coddle to honor the god tit's ketlepoca. That one is

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<v Speaker 1>pronounced like it looks.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah. So in nineteen thirteen there was a folklorus named

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<v Speaker 2>Lewis Spence Nice who wrote really nailed that one who

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<v Speaker 2>wrote Myths of Mexico and Peru, and he described this

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<v Speaker 2>festival and this is sort of the key part as

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<v Speaker 2>far as we're concerned. On the day of this festival,

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<v Speaker 2>a youth was slain YadA, YadA YadA. He carried also

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<v Speaker 2>the whistle symbolical of the deity lord of the night wind,

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<v Speaker 2>and made with it a noise such as the weird

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<v Speaker 2>wind of night makes when it hurries through the streets.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it does. I mean, there's videos online of

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<v Speaker 1>people playing these, like indigenous musicians playing death whistles, and

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<v Speaker 1>you can kind of get the idea of like, oh, okay,

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<v Speaker 1>this kind of does sound like an agonized scream. There's

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<v Speaker 1>a point to be made though that these replica death whistles,

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<v Speaker 1>especially you know, made by both they're larger than the

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<v Speaker 1>regular size, so just by that alone means they're not

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<v Speaker 1>going to sound like the other ones will. So I

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<v Speaker 1>think what both kind of concluded is that he's just

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<v Speaker 1>he's not instructed in how to play these original small

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<v Speaker 1>death whistles that the sacrifice guy was was holding, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>and that he just can't do it. He never had

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<v Speaker 1>to do. He looked around at the crowd.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah. The notion that they were maybe used in battle.

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<v Speaker 2>They definitely did stuff like that with obviously drums, but

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<v Speaker 2>also blowing into conkshells like the Waponi wu getting together.

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<v Speaker 2>Maybe they're communicating with each other. Maybe they're just again

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<v Speaker 2>trying to like scare their enemies. But when they asked

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<v Speaker 2>both like well what about this death whistle, he was

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<v Speaker 2>like have you seen these things? He's like, this is

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<v Speaker 2>the size of my pinky. Yeah, it's like this didn't

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<v Speaker 2>get to scare even three hundred of these didn't gonna

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<v Speaker 2>scare anybody.

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<v Speaker 1>No, but some drums will in a conk shell, well

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<v Speaker 1>for sure.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, so that's it.

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<v Speaker 1>Death whistles probably not used in battle, but almost certainly

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<v Speaker 1>used in rituals that ended in someone's beheading. That's right,

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<v Speaker 1>Chuck said, that's right. I think that means short stuff

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<v Speaker 1>is it?

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<v Speaker 2>Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

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