2 ■ BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (bull. 45 



bravery and speak of him with respect. The words of the song 

 evidently refer to the grief of his fellow officers, and are as follows: 

 "One in authority passeth wailing. Thou, O chief, art by nature 

 also a man." 



The Chippewa have no songs which are the exclusive property of 

 families or clans. A young man may learn his father's songs, for 

 example, by giving him the customary gift of tobacco, but he does 

 not inherit the right to sing such songs, nor does his father force him 

 to learn them. 



The history of the Chippewa songs is well known to the singers, 

 and is further preserved by the Indian custom of prefacing a song 

 with a brief speech concerning it. On formal occasions the Chip- 

 pewa singer says: "My friends, I will now sing you the song of ," 



describinii: the subject of the song. At the close of the song he says: 



"My friends, I have sung the song of ," repeating the title of the 



song. In this way the facts concerning the song become strongly 

 associated with the melody in the minds of the people. 



Chippewa singers often mention the locality from which a song 

 came — Gull lake, Madeline island, or La Pointe. If a song was 

 learned from the Sioux, it is so stated. 



An interesting fact concerning Chippewa songs is that the melody 

 is evidently considered more important than the words. In a suc- 

 cession of several renditions of a song it is not unusual to find the 

 words occurring only once. The idea is the important thing, and 

 that is firmly connected with the melody in the minds of the Indians. 

 It is permissible and customary to compose new words for old tunes, 

 but, so far as the writer has observed, these are always similar in general 

 character to the words previously used. These observations do not, 

 of course, apply to the Mide' songs, which are considered separately. 

 An instance of the changing of words in a song is furnished by 

 one of the love songs (no. 138; catalogue no. 107). As originally 

 recorded the words of this song were: "Do not weep, I am not going 

 to die." On another reservation the same song was found, the words 

 being: "Do not weep, I am not going away;" again: "Do not weep, 

 I am going away but I will return soon." Among a third group of 

 Indians the writer found the song changed again. A certain Indian 

 said that he had recently made some new words for the song. The 

 words referred to a certain incident which he related, their general 

 trend being: "Do not weep, I will take care of you." In all these 

 instances the underlying idea was the same and the general trend 

 of the melody was the same, though different singers gave slightly 

 different passing tones and embellishments. The various changes 

 thus introduced did not affect the identity of the song in the mind 

 of the Indians. 



