Rainsticks

About

Rainsticks are long, hollow tubes, usually from cacti, with small pins or thorns arranged helically on its inside surface and partially filled with small pebbles or beans. When the stick is upended, the pebbles fall to the other end of the tube, making a sound reminiscent of rain falling. The rainstick is believed to have been invented by the Mapuches and was played in the belief it could bring about rainstorms.