cog rattle (ratchet)

Local name: terkotka
Classification: 1 Idiophones / 11 Struck idiophones / 112 Indirectly struck idiophones / 112.2 Scraped idiophones / 112.24 Scraped wheels or cog rattles
Maker: Naróg Stanisław
Date: 1986
Village / Town: Żołynia Górna
Region: Carpathian area (Subcarpathia)
Country: Poland
Owner: The State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw
Inventory number: PME 49136
Description: a cog wheel whose axle serves as a handle, and a tongue fixed in a frame which is free to turn on the handle; when whirled, the tongue strikes the teeth of the wheel one after another
Decoration: body and coged wheel painted in geometrical and floral patterns
Measurements: frame 185 x 35 mm, handle 103 mm
Materials: wood
Performance practice: formerly used to make ritual noise during the folk Koledari ceremonies, instead of church bells during the Holy Week, to frighten away animals during hunting, and to signal vigilance by night watchmen (in towns), nowadays also a toy
Catalog card by: Teresa Lewińska / Zbigniew J. Przerembski


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