123 



are rather shrill. Nathaniel, the choir leader at Nain, has 

 composed an anthem in four parts, showing that the Eskimo 

 are not incapable of constructive work in music. The Moravian 

 Mission Eskimo also show an aptitude for civilized musical 

 instruments, and there is a well balanced band at both Nain 

 and Okkak. The organist, Jeremias, at Nain, the Moravian 

 headquarters, is a musician of no mean ability. He can play 

 classical selections on the pipe organ and any band instrument. 

 The Eskimo have a good ear for music, and will catch an air 

 after it has been sung once or twice to them, and repeat it with 

 great gusto and evident feeling for the rhythm. Rhythm is 

 the foundation of their native drum and dance songs, and it is 

 not so remarkable that they excel in it, as it is that they are 

 able to catch the entirely foreign time of the complicated music 

 of civilization. 



The Eskimo music differs from civilized harmony in having 

 a pentatonic scale, and in the constant reiteration of a note 

 or phrase, particularly in their a-ya-aya-ya chorus. A drop of 

 an octave or a shift into another key is not uncommon in the 

 same song. The time is 2-4, formed on the double drum beat, 

 which the voice accentuates in the music. The body, with odd 

 jerking of the arms and stamping of the feet, answers the roll 

 of the drums in the dance. The women stand with feet together 

 and sway the body from the hips, and wave their hands. (In 

 some sections, as in north Greenland, the men also stand with 

 fixed feet while dancing and singing.) The song is delivered 

 at the top of the voice, the idea seeming to be that the more 

 noise the better is the music. The men's songs are interspersed 

 with shouts. The women have soft cradle-songs which they sing 

 to the babies in the hood while they are swaying them to sleep. 

 These are more melodious than the drum-songs. Among the 

 Alaskan Eskimo the young girls have a curious type of song 

 which they perform among themselves as a sort of game or 

 amusement. It is called "throat-singing" and consists of a series 

 of guttural ejaculations, which they attribute to the Raven. 

 Incantations are chanted ; the text at the end of this volume is 

 an illustration. In story-telling, a man often stops to sing a 

 short phrase or song, as delivered by a character in the legend. 



