NELSON] FESTIVAL SONGS 349 



rendered to the music of the drums and the steady, monotonous chant 

 of the drummers rendered the whole very effective. 



The following two songs give a general idea of the character of those 

 sung at festivals for pastime. The first is a song of a Malemut hunter 

 from the head of Kotzebue sound. He wishes for the time to come 

 when the reindeer shall renew their horns, that the hunting season 

 may begin. It was noted that the same idea was repeated again and 

 again with constant repetition of the same chorus, so that a few 

 phrases did duty for hours : 



A-im'-it-yai' ya-t-yae un-a-i-ija i-yd ai-yae-ig'-i-a 

 (Chorus) (Chorus) 



Co-ai-d-chug'-il-lt yae-yd-i-a iin' -a-i-yd-i-ya-ai 

 1 want (Chorus) (Chorus) 



d-to'-ai-gud-ly iin-t-yae-yae kin'-gh'-kluii'-d 

 very much (Chorus) to see 



i-yae-i-yd nug-g'ul-in. 



(Chorus) the deer horns make, etc. 



The following song, composed and sung by a man at Cape Prince of 

 Wales in Bering strait, expressed his wish to see the ships come in the 

 spring, because his tobacco was gone : 



I-ghi-ghun-d t/n-i-yd-ae-yd mai'-u-ruk'-i-gd I-yun-t-yd-yd 

 The mouutain (Chorus) I wish to climb (Chorus) 



chiin-mu-i-nak'. I-yae-yd Kut-kU'-ku-md, 

 to get to the water. (Chorus) I sit on the top, 



ki-nig'-nai-gdk I-yun-d-yd-ya um' -i-iik-piik-mun-d 

 1 wish to see (Chorus) the big boats coming 



A-yu-yae-ya ti-bd'-lae-ka. 

 (Chorus) tobac<!0 (with). 



The following music was written for me by Bishop Seghers, an accom- 

 plished Catholic missionary (afterward killed on the upper Yukon), from 

 a song sung by the Eskimo during a dance at Ikogmut on the lower 

 Yukon in the winter of 1879. This gentleman, who was a skilled musi- 

 cian, said that the most remarkable thing he had noted in the songs of 

 the Eskimo, both of the lower Yukon and of the adjacent coast of 

 Bering sea, was the ease and accuracy with which they raised and 

 dropped an exact octave when singing: 



Despite the fact that these people are so fond of their own music, 

 they are unable to understand or enjoy that of a more complicated 

 character. At St Michael some of the men were frequently invited 

 into one of the houses where there was a small organ, and the agent of 

 the Fur company would play simple melodies for them. In every 

 instance the visitors kept perfectly quiet, and watched the keyboard 

 of the instrument closely, as if fascinated. Finally, I asked an old 

 man who had attended several of these concerts if he enjoyed the 

 music, and he replied frankly that he did not, because, said he, " I 



