126 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. III. 



POWAMU SONGS. 



It has not yet been possible to obtain all the songs used in the 

 entire Powamu ceremony. Fortunately, all those which are sung in 

 the regular morning and evening ceremonies of the Powamu ceremony 

 proper have been recorded. Of the Powalawu songs, however, we 

 have only three. Besides these we have the Discharming or Purifica- 

 tion song, and of others, for instance that sung by the Powamu priest 

 over the four bahos, etc., on the last day, we have some notes but too 

 incomplete to be published. 



The language of some of the songs is almost entirely archaic and 

 that of others contains many archaic words, while all of them contain 

 words that have no special meaning, so that the interpretation of the 

 songs has thus far been very unsatisfactory. Most of the words 

 undergo considerable change and receive additional syllables when 

 used in songs, so that it is often very difficult to identify them when 

 hearing or even when writing them. I may state in this connection 

 that the number of songs of the Hopi is legion, but it is surprising 

 what a great percentage of them are not at all or are only partly 

 understood by the Hopi, because the songs are either entirely or 

 partly composed of archaic words or have been borrowed from other 

 tribes. The latter is especially the case with the songs of such Kat- 

 cinas as have been introduced from other tribes, and it is self-evident 

 that the knowledge of such songs by the Hopi is but imperfect at best 

 and, in fact, some are used in fragmentary form only. It is to be 

 hoped that someone will be able to make a special study of this sub- 

 ject, which, however, will necessitate a study of the language 

 thorough enough to enable the student to dispense with interpreters, as 

 in many cases either the old priests will not sing the most valuable and 

 sacred songs, or the interpreters, who are young people, are unable 

 to give the meaning of the words, many of which are not used in every- 

 day life. 



