USE OF MUSIC BY AMERICAN INDIANS — DENSMORE 



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be summoned at any time. For an entire day Owl Woman directed 

 him in recording her songs for the writer. 



Owl Woman always began a treatment with two songs given her 

 by the spirit of a man who was killed near Tucson. As in many of 

 her songs, the words are highly poetic. The first song ran : 



Brown owls come here in the blue evening. 



They are hooting about, 



They are shaking their wings and hooting. 



and the second : 



How shall I begin my song in the blue night that 



is settling? 

 I will sit here and begin my song. 



After four songs had been sung she treated the sick man by stroking 

 his body with a bunch of owl feathers on which she sprinkled ashes 

 from his fire. The night was divided into four parts, each with its 

 own songs. 



Jose Panco, a Papago doctor, has treated the sick for 12 years, each 

 year represented by a notch in the handle of the gourd rattle with 



"' «■" 8 J J I I i I 1 1 i | I 



Figure 3. — Papago healing song, recorded by Jose Panco. 



Sandy Loam Fields, on top of these Elder 



Brother (Montezuma) stands and sings. 

 Over our heads the clouds are seen, downy white 



feathers gathered in a bunch. 



which he accompanies the songs. Panco recorded several songs, among 

 them a song with two verses that he received from his grandfather. A 

 deer gave this song to a hunter from Sandy Loam Fields, a native 

 village. It is a gentle, pleasing melody and an excellent example of 

 irregular rhythm. 



Not far from the Papago Reservation, to the west, is the reservation 

 of the Yuma and Cocopa. Charles Wilson, the leading Yuma doctor, 



