564 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



strings, wliich, being agitated by the closing door, strike the wires, 

 making music wlienever the door is moved. 



Mr. Murdoch ^ gives a better report of the musical abilities of the 

 Point Barrow Eskimo. He says: 



Their music consists of mouotonous chauts, usually with very little perceptible 

 air, aufl pitched generally in a minor key. 1 could not perceive that they had any 

 idea of "tune,"' in the musical sense, but when several sang together each pitched 

 the tune to suit himself. They, however, keep excellent time. The ordinary songs 

 are in "common" or 4-4 time. The words are often extemporaneous, and at toler- 

 able regular intervals comes the 



H^ J refrain, "A yana, yana, a yana 



ya," whicb takes the place of the 

 "limna aja" of the eastern Eski- 

 mo. Sometimes, when they are 

 humming or singing to them- 

 selves, the words are nothing but 

 this refrain. Their voices, as a 

 general thing, are musical. 



Like all Eskimo, they are very 

 fond of music, and are constantly 

 singing and humming to 1 hem- 

 selves, sometimes, according to 

 Captain Herendeen, waking up 

 in the night to sing. Besides 

 their regular festivals they often 

 amuse themselves in their houses 

 by singing to the drum. They are 

 fond of civilized music and, hav- 

 ing usually very quick and acute 

 ears, readily catch the tunes, which they sing with curiously mutilated words. We 

 found "Shoo fly" and "Little Brown Jug" great favorites at the time of our arrival, 

 and one old woman from Nuwuk told us with great glee how Magwa (McGuire) 

 used to sing "Tolderolderol." Our two violins, the doctor's and the cook's, were a 

 constant source of delight to them. 



Fig. 203. 



DRUM. 



Neueuot, Hudson Bay Eskimo. 



U. S. Natimml Musfuni. 



HUDSON BAY ESKIMO. 



Mr. L. M. Turner,^ speaking of the Hudson Bay Eskimo, says : 



The only musical instrument used by these people is the drum or tambourine of 

 the form shown. These drums vary in diameter from 22 to 26 inches. The mem- 

 brane for the drumhead is a thin reindeer skin tanned. 



Fig. 203 represents one of these drums from Neuenot. 



Across the membrane is stretched a sinew cord on which are strung at right angles 

 to the cord a number of barrels, made from the (juills of the wiug feathers of the 

 willow ptarmigan. Across the underside of the membrane is stretched a similar 

 cord with (quills. 



Mr. Turner figures and describes a similar drum used by the Little 

 Whale River Indians, which drums, he says, differ greatly in construc- 

 tion from those of the Uugava Indians. 



The size is rarely so great, seldom exceeding 22 inches. These drums have two 



1 Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1887-88, pp. 388, 389. 

 - Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1889-90, pp. 324-326. 



