672 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



extractions, in solo and in chorus, and she has never found among 

 the various performers the least alteration in rhythm or in melody. 

 Miss Fletcher has collected with the aid of a phonograph different 

 Indian melodies which she has transcribed with the usual notations 

 and submitted for study to several expert musicians. Not only have 

 they not been able to find the dissonance which might be expected 

 in music coming from races uncultured and relatively little civilized, 

 but they have even found in it, it is said, striking resemblances to 

 "themes of Beethoven, of Schubert, of Schumann, and especially 

 of Wagner." I confess that all of this astonishes me greatly, ex- 

 cept that concerning Wagner ; I have always wondered whether the 

 music of this composer did not have something of barbarity, but it 

 has been necessary for Miss Fletcher to open my ears in order that 

 I might know to what to attribute my opinion. 



As far as I am concerned, all the music I have heard among the 

 Indians — that is, of course, original music and not imitations or 

 recollections of things more or less modern — recalled nothing of 

 Beethoven nor of Schumann, but rather brought to mind liturgical 

 chants roared by drunken singers which could be heard a long way 

 off. I will add, to justify my comparison, that generally when the 

 Indians sing, except in church during services, they are drunk. 



Several months ago I was able to be present at Dinamita 14 at 

 the balls, semiprofane, semireligious, of the ancients or ancestors 

 celebrated by the natives. These are divided into two groups — the 

 Antiguos (ancients, ancestors) properly so called, disguised as Red- 

 skins at a carnival, and the Matachiries (matachins, clowns), wearing 

 fantastic costumes. It is to be noted that these dances — as droll as are 

 the costumes — are very seriously conducted. The dancers do not 

 dance for pleasure ; they are observing a rite, a kind of religious cere- 

 mony. They dance to a monotonous rhythm which has more of the 

 liturgical chant than of profane music. 



They throw themselves about for hours and hours, day and night, 

 almost without stopping, for about nine days, until completely ex- 

 hausted. None of them dance in couples, no one touches anyone else ; 

 each dances on his own account, all following the general lines of a 

 known program. No obscene motions; brief words to indicate the 

 movements ; and from time to time a great collective cry : Ah ! Ah ! 

 Ah ! Ah ! which all modulate and prolong interminably. This re- 

 calls at times the " sun dance " of the Sioux and the Apaches, from 

 whom the cry is certainly borrowed. We have already alluded to 

 this above. 



14 Dinamita, where are located tbe acid and explosive factories of the Mexican National 

 Dynamite and Industrial Explosives Co. (French capital), is situated in the State of 

 Durango in a region called "La Tinaja " (the basin), which was formerly — and up to 

 50 years ago — a retreat of the Redskins, particularly the Apaches and Kickapoos. I have 

 dug up numerous traces of them — bones, ornaments, and different implements. 



