ESKIMO MUSIC 

 Kopainu. 



< Snow bunting.) From Igia, Cape York. 



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Ai - taktung-mi - u - su - gon, ai - taktung-mi-u - su -gdn. 



Tauh-soa te-le - se tauh-soa te-le - se kok-tar-lu - ta kemengma-ti-gon. 

 Man 'dog 



Here was a revelation! Having written down air and 

 words, I repeated the song, to the great astonishment of 

 the young men, who expressed the belief that I must be 

 an Eskimo. I asked the meaning of the words, but with 

 the exception of the word aitakto, which he said meant " to 

 open one's mouth," he declared that he did not know, 

 that the Eskimos did not talk that way now, but that it 

 was the language of their ancestors. Seeing my interest 

 in the matter, he presently went through his entire reper- 

 toire, and thus I obtained the songs of the burgomaster 

 (glaucous) gull, raven, hare, fox, long tailed jaeger (boats- 

 wain gull) and gerfalcon. Meantime Publa sat a dumb 

 spectator, and, on being urged to sing, replied, " Nadluiga " 

 ( I don't know ") : I found out afterward that there are 

 great differences among individuals in regard to musical 

 gifts, though there is probably none without a musical ear. 

 Igia was one of the most songful spirits in the tribe, and, 

 with his nearly white complexion and unusually regular 

 features, would make a very appropriate figure as the bard 

 of a nation. Unfortunately, he verified the common ex- 

 perience that the cult of the muses is not conducive to 

 worldly prosperity. A desperate attack of rheumatism 

 had reduced him to a skeleton; the clothes he wore, a 

 small broken sledge and a little wooden box containing a 

 few trifles obtained from the white men, constituted the 

 sum of his worldly possessions. Like most young bards, 

 he was perpetually sighing for connubial bliss, but in his 

 destitute condition had very little chance of attaining his 

 desire. I am glad to add that I was able, on parting, to 

 give him enough wood to build the frame of a kayak, while 



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