INDIAN MUSIC — DENSMORE 533 



graduates or former students of Hampton Normal and Industrial 

 Institute and the Carlisle School. These men had a literary use of 

 English because they were away from its vernacular use for so 

 many years. Valuable aid was also given by the Kev. Clement H. 

 Beaulieu, a Chippewa clergyman of the Episcopal church who studied 

 the subtle meanings of the Chippewa language as he studied Greek. 

 Much time is required in working out the understanding of a word 

 in the Indian mind, and the interpreter must be patient as well 

 as painstaking when translating the words of songs or any informa- 

 tion that lies close to the finer phases of Indian thought. An exact 

 translation of the Indian idiom reveals the native poetry in the words 

 of the songs. 



It was particularly hard to find a competent interpreter among 

 the Seminole in Florida, as shown by the following incident: A cer- 

 tain dance was designated as the Two-headed Dance. On being 

 questioned further the interpreter said he meant that the dancers 

 "headed two ways," and described the motion of the dancers around 

 the man who is shaking the coconut-shell rattle. They move in a 

 circle until they reach their starting point, then stand still a minute 

 before reversing the motion, moving in the opposite direction and 

 singing another song. The name of the dance was recorded as the 

 Two-direction Dance. Another dance was called the Screech Owl 

 Dance and many songs were recorded with that title. Panther said 

 it was also called the Prairie Dance, saying this was an "off-hand 

 name" given it by the white people. He said the Seminole were to 

 dance at a certain exhibition and the manager gave it that name. 

 "There was no reason for the change but white people understood 

 that word 'Prairie.' " 



Kobert Higheagle, my interpreter on the Standing Rock Reserva- 

 tion in North Dakota, was a graduate of Hampton Institute as well as 

 of the business department of Carnegie College. I could send him 

 away for a day, on horseback, and he would "bring back his man" — 

 not literally, but the man would come in his wagon the next day. 

 After such a quest, Brave Buffalo, a distinguished medicine man, 

 came to the agency and recorded his best songs. Attached to the 

 band of his hat was a whistle which showed that he was on his way 

 to attend a patient. He excused himself to go and see the sick person 

 but returned later, as he promised. It was my custom to type my 

 material and ask Higheagle to look it over. Thus I wrote a brief 

 account of the life of Sitting Bull, in connection with his personal 

 songs, and asked Higheagle to read it. He studied the material and 

 then said "You have written that Sitting Bull returned from Canada. 

 I think we had better say that he was returned, for the soldiers 

 brought him back." When an interpreter uses the pronoun "we" I 



