﻿152 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 74 



let and a flute, the latter being the fir>t wind instrument blown across 

 the end which has thus far been obtained. Sjiccimens of all these 

 were secured and the playing of the flageolet and flute were recorded 

 by the phonograph. In addition to her musical work, Miss Densmore 

 made a phonograph record of the numbers from i to 30 spoken by 

 an aged woman who knows the " old language." 



In April, 1922, jMiss Densmore visited the Yaqui at Guadalupe 

 Village, about 10 miles distant from Phoenix. She was present at 

 the observances of the week preceding Easter, including the deer 

 dance which was given on Good Friday. Similar, though more primi- 

 tive, observances were attended at a Yaqui village near Tucson, in 

 April, 1920. The Yaqui observance of Holy ^^'eek is a mixture of 

 Roman Catholic influence and native ideas, customs, and dances. The 

 singing is said to be continuous day and night from Good Friday to 

 Easter. There is an evident fanaticism, and a certain hypnotic effect 

 in Yaqui singing which suggests that, under some conditions, the people 

 could work themselves into an irresponsible state of mind by its use. 

 The melodies connected with the religious observance were less dis- 

 tinctly native than those of the deer dance which was performed on 

 the day before Easter by five men. all scantily clad. The leader of 

 the dancers wore a head dress made of the head of a deer and his leg- 

 wrappings were ornamented with hundreds of tiny pouches made of 

 deer hide containing pebbles, forming a series of rattles. Two of 

 the dancers carried rattles made of a flat piece of wood in which were 

 set several small tin disks which vibrated as the rattles were shaken. 

 In this dance they likewise used four half -gourds, of which one was 

 placed hollow side dowmward on water in a small tub and another 

 was inverted on the ground. These served as drums. The other two 

 were placed on the ground and used as resonators for rasping sticks. 

 A few days later ^^liss Densmore recorded the deer dance songs, 

 given by an old man who was the leading singer at all the deer dances. 

 She recorded also a deer dance song of the r^layo, living in Mexico. 



It was found there are two kinds of music among the Yaqui, one 

 being the native, exemplified in the deer dance, and the other showing 

 a Alexican influence, though the people stoutly asserted that it is 

 Yaqui and " different from ^Mexican music." The songs of the deer 

 dance are simple, with some characteristics not previously found in 

 Indian music but appearing to be native concepts. These and similar 

 songs are known to only a few of the old men. Songs of the second 

 kind are sung by the younger men and are very pleasing, joyous 

 melodies, usually accomj:)anied by the guitar. 



