Aztec Death Whistle

Aztec Death Whistles were used in death ceremonies when rulers died. Hundreds of priests would march through the streets blowing these whistles to communicate to the spirit world and prepare the soul for the journey to the afterlife.

The form of this whistle is directly based on a postclassic clay sculpture of a sacrifice victim, while the internals and size are derived from death whistles found in archaeological digs. Listen to the video to hear the chilling screaming sounds these produce.

Playing this whistle can be hard. Start softly blowing directly into the hole adjusting the angle until it starts to sound like static. Once you've found the right angle, going from no air to to blowing hard makes the whistle scream more realistically. One angle makes a nice musical tone like a whistle - this is the wrong angle. It should sound like static or growling that grows to a scream when more air is blown into the whistle.