PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 515 
freckle’ in ordinary conversation, but “to kill” in song. 
The extreme is met with in those cases where the songs are 
taught and conveyed long distances from one tribe to the 
other, for, like articles of exchange and barter, they may 
travel in various directions and along identical trade routes 
and markets. As has been already recorded by me in the 
N.W.-Central districts, when taught to one tribe, the latter 
may take the song on to the next, and so on, the visitor's 
being given presents, &c., in return for the instruction im- 
parted. Sometimes picked men may be sent long distances 
just for the sake of learning one. It may thus come to pass, 
and very often does, that a tribe will learn by rote and sing 
whole songs in a language absolutely remote from its own, 
and not one word -of which they—the audience or per- 
formers—can understand the meaning of. That the words 
are very carefully committed to memory I have obtained 
ample proof by transcribing phonetically the same songs as 
performed by different-speaking people living at distances 
upwards of 100 miles apart. 
On the other hand, there is occasionally undoubted evi- 
dence (¢.g., on the Tully) that the same song may be found 
in the camp for years without apparent alterations. The 
first word or line of the verse often gives the name to the 
particular song, in the same way as a European speaks of 
his Paternoster and Alphabet. 
Songs.—The subject-matter expressed in song deals with 
obscenity, pure and simple; persons deceased, provocations 
for quarrels, animal life, everyday experiences of personal 
or tribal interest, and ceremonial observances. As far as is 
ascertainable, there is no single touch of sympathy, senti- 
ment, or pathos; no lullabies or love songs m the modern 
sense of these terms. 
Dances.—People always sing in one or other of the squat- 
ting positions, and beat time either with the hands or with 
sticks, &c. Whereas songs may or may not be accompanied 
with dances, there is never a dance without a song; in other 
words, dancing is essentially the accompaniment of song. 
Furthermore, beyond an occasional shout or whoop, the 
dancers certainly, while dancing, do not participate in the 
singing. With the males the dancing consists, in the main, 
of a stamping movement of the feet to the time beaten on 
the hands or on sticks (PI. XXXV.). Another fairly common 
movement of the lower extremities is the alternate external 
and internal rotation of the knees with the limbs separated 
(Pl. XXXVI.). Occasionally, one foot may be placed over 
