70 ANN-UAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 31 



several hours afterwards. Inside the tipi sat the medicine man, 

 believed to be talking with spirits whom he had summoned, the 

 spirits making known their presence by the shaking of the conical 

 structure. The next day the medicine man said that he had sum- 

 moned the spirits in order to ascertain whether his treatment of a 

 certain sick man would be successful. He said that if the spirits 

 " spoke loud and clear " the man would recover, but if their voices 

 were faint the man would die. The response was said to have been 

 satisfactory, and accordingly he instituted a " beneficial dance," 

 which was attended by Miss Densmore, and the songs heard for a 

 considerable time. These, like the songs in the tipi, resembled the 

 songs of the Chippewa Grand Medicine Society. 



The study of Indian music was continued by a trip to Kilbourn, 

 Wis., during August and September. Two pageants are given simul- 

 taneously at The Dalles of the Wisconsin River, near Kilbourn, each 

 employing about 100 Indians. In the pageants the swan and hoop 

 dance, as well as war and social dances of the Winnebago, were seen. 

 The dances of other tribes presented in the pageants included the 

 eagle dance and other pueblo dances. Songs of the swan, hoop, and 

 frog dances were later recorded by leading pageant singers. 



At Kilbourn Miss Densmore recorded numerous songs of Pueblo 

 Indians from Isleta and Cochiti, these consisting chiefly of corn- 

 grinding and war songs. The words of these songs are highly poetic 

 and many of the melodies resemble Acoma songs in structure. 



As John Bearskin and his family were traveling from Kilbourn to 

 their home in Nebraska they passed through Red Wing, Minn., and 

 songs were recorded at Miss Densmore's home. Bearskin recorded 

 three complete sets of the Winnebago medicine lodge songs and a set 

 of Buffalo feast songs. 



In January, 1931, Miss Densmore went to Washington, where she 

 worked on the preparation of material for publication, and proceeded 

 thence to Miami, Fla., where she began a study of Seminole music, 

 recording songs of the corn dance from the man who leads the 

 singing in that ceremony; also the songs that precede a hunting 

 expedition. The customs of the Seminole were studied and a collec- 

 tion of specimens was obtained. This collection includes two com- 

 plete costumes and is now the property of the United States National 

 Museum. 



The second phase of the research is represented by eight manu- 

 scripts which include the transcriptions and analyses of 77 songs and 

 two flute melodies recorded by Winnebago, Isleta, Cochiti, and Sem- 

 inole Indians. The cumulative analyses of Indian songs has been 

 continued and now comprises 1,553 songs. The 14 tables submitted 

 during this year constitute a comparison between a large series of 

 Nootka and Quileute songs and the songs previously analyzed by 

 the same method. 



