﻿126 S.MITIISOXIAX MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS \"Or.. 76 



Among the songs peculiar to tliis triljc was one learned from the 

 frogs, another concerning the story of an encounter hetween a man 

 and a shark, and another concerning a mysterious creature of the sea 

 called hy a term meaning " lightning helt of the thunderbird." Con- 

 cerning one song it was said, " In old times the jjeople believed that 

 the singing of this song would bring rain." Three " echo songs,'" with 

 prolonged tones, were recorded by Young Doctor (fig. 122) who said 

 he heard them in a dreauL sung by men in a canoe on a very calm day. 

 Young Doctor was an excellent singer, a proficient, industrious worker 

 in wood and whale bone and formerly treated the sick, using a rattle 

 of shells strung on thin whale bone. 



Other sul)jects studied were war, contests of strength, and the ordi- 

 nary potlatch, with its songs of invitation, welcome and feasting. 



The following incident is of interest, in connection with the study 

 of Indian music. ]\Iiss Densmore played for Young Doctor the phono- 

 graph record of a Yuma song. He listened attentively and then said, 

 " That sounds like a song calling on the southwest wind and asking for 

 rain. It is calling for a soft wind, not a strong wind."' He was 

 interested to learn that the song came from a desert country where the 

 desire for rain is often in the minds of the people, and the song be- 

 longed to the Kurok, or ^Memorial ceremony of the Yuma. The words 

 of this song were in an obsolete language, unknown to the man who 

 recorded it. 



Two phases of singing by the Makah women deserve special men- 

 tion. It was said to be the custom with all old songs that a man sang 

 the introduction, then a certain woman pronounced the words, after 

 which all sang the song. This woman acted as a sort of precentor, and 

 her action was not unlike that of " lining out the words." The second 

 interesting phase of singing by the women was the use of a high drone, 

 or sustained tone, while the other singers gave the melodv. It was 

 said " the Makah women sometimes do this if they are not sure of a 

 song and are asked to help with the singing, but the Ouileute women 

 do it a great deal, calling it the * metal pitch ' because it is like a piece 

 of metal which can give only one pitch." Aliss Densmore heard and 

 noted this high drone in the singing of Papago women in southern 

 Arizona, where it seemed to l)e regarded as an ornamentation to the 

 music. A high drone is said to characterize the singing in " some parts 

 of European Russia and all over the eastern Caucasus, in the wild 

 recesses of the mountains where the native music has not felt the 

 modifying influence of European culture." Its i:)resence in these 

 localities in the United States, and not in tribes living farther from 



