530 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



responsibility was placed entirely upon him and the other Chippewa 

 who took part, but the regret remained. For that reason I have often 

 refused to take material that is surrounded by superstition. I tell 

 the Indians that I am trying to preserve the material so their chil- 

 dren will understand the old customs, and that I do not want them 

 to worry or be unhappy after I have gone. Sometimes this allays 

 their fears and they are willing to talk freely, but I would rather miss 

 some information than cause such distress as that of my old friend, 

 Maingans, the Chippewa. 



RECORDING EQUIPMENT 



The phonograph I bought was a small machine and the Bureau 

 in 1908 replaced it with a Columbia graphophone. Home recording 

 was at the height of its popularity and this machine was made to 

 meet the demand. I was also supplied with several special recorders 

 which I tested with various types of voices and marked for the use 

 to which they were best adapted. The galvanized-iron recording 

 horn sent with this equipment was the best I have ever used. I have 

 since tried many others, but none has produced the same quality of 

 tone. This equipment is still in excellent order and I used it in re- 

 cording Zuni songs in 1940. 



During the years since this was purchased I have tried one type 

 of recording apparatus after another, as they have been placed on 

 the market. My next equipment was a 4-minute Edison phonograph, 

 used for the first time among the Ute in 1916. This had a metal 

 frame, increasing the weight. The cylinder was longer, making it pos- 

 sible to record more singing, but the thread was finer and the little 

 ridges on the cylinder sometimes broke down with repeated playing 

 of the record. This equipment was used only in Utah and in North 

 Dakota, when recording songs of the Mandan and Hidatsa in 1918. 

 It had several recorders but I could not distinguish between the qual- 

 ity of their recordings. 



In 1924 I began the use of an electric dictaphone and have used 

 one at intervals ever since. It was used when recording the songs of 

 the Tule Indians in Washington, the Seminole in Florida, the 

 Winnebago in Wisconsin, the Omaha in Nebraska, and the songs of 

 Santo Domingo Pueblo, recorded in California. For recording on 

 the reservations I have used a dictaphone operated by a storage 

 battery, but for recent work among the Omaha I used a 1941 model 

 dictaphone, adapted to either direct current or alternating current. 

 The type of recording apparatus varies with the circumstances under 

 which the work is done. The ordinary dictaphone is not a precision 

 instrument and alternating current is not always the same. The 

 difference in current may cause a difference of a half tone, or even 



