56 ANNUAL EEPOBT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



Bureau is 173 and these were arranged in a tentative order, corre- 

 sponding to the order in the manuscript. About 70 Seminole songs, 

 recorded in 1932 and 1933, have not yet been submitted to the Bureau. 

 Work was begun on this material and a few of the songs were 

 transcribed. 



A peculiar custom observed in a few of the oldest Choctaw and 

 Seminole songs consists in an embellisliment of the melody in repe- 

 titions. It was found that the several renditions differed from one 

 another and that the Indians were able to sing the simple melody, 

 without the embellishments. These consisted in the addition of 

 short, unimportant tones, without changing the trend of the melody. 

 The custom resembles the improvisation which was noted in the 

 songs of the Tule Indians of Panama and is in contrast to the exact 

 repetitions of songs by northern tribes of Indians. A similar custom 

 exists among Negroes on the Island of Trinidad in the British West 

 Indies, and has been called Calypso. 



According to Louis C. Elson (Curiosities of Music, p. 278, Oliver 

 Ditson & Co., Boston, 1880), "The power of improvisation which is 

 so well developed in the African Negro, is fully sustained by his 

 descendants * * *." 



Miss Densmore presented to the Bureau the original manuscript 

 of an Onondaga Thanksgiving Song, written down for her in 1903 

 at Syracuse, N. Y., by Albert Cusick, a prominent Onondaga from 

 the reservation near that city. The native words with their trans- 

 lation were also obtained. The song is in two parts, the lower being 

 rhythmic and resembling a vocal accompaniment to the melod)\ 



EDITORIAL. WORK AND PUBLICATIONS 



The editorial work of the Bureau has continued during the year 

 under the immediate direction of the editor, M. Helen Palmer. There 

 were issued three bulletins, as follows: 



Bulletin 101. War ceremony and peace ceremony of the Osage Indians, by 

 Francis La Flesche. vii-f-280 pp., 13 pis., 1 fig. 



Bulletin 124. Nootka and Quileute music, by Frances Densmore. xxvi+358 pp., 

 24 pis., 7 figs. 



Bulletin 125. Ethnography of the Fox Indians, by William Jones. Edited by 

 Margaret Welpley Fisher. 1x4-156 pp. 



The following bulletins were in press at the close of the fiscal year : 



Bulletin 126. Archeological remains In the Whitewater District, Eastern 

 Arizona. Part II. Artifacts and burials, by Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr. With 

 appendix, Skeletal remains from the Whitewater District, Eastern Arizona, by 

 T. D. Stewart. 



Bulletin 127. Linguistic material from the tribes of southern Texas and north- 

 eastern Mexico, by John R. Swanton. 



