130 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 45 



tion of the distant thunder which precedes a storm. Hearing this, 

 the Indian hastens to put tobacco on the fire in order that the smoke 

 may ascend as an offering or signal of peace to the manido'. The 

 idea which imderhes the song is, "That which lives in the sky is 

 coming and, being friendly, it makes a noise to let me know of its 

 approach." This means much less to the white race than to the 

 Indian. We are accustomed to noise; the Indian habitually ap- 

 proaches in silence, unless he wishes to announce his presence.*^ 



Analysis. — This song is harmonic in structure and contains the 

 tones of the fourth five-toned scale. More than a year before the 

 making of this record the same song was secured from a younger 

 singer. On comparing the two records it is found that they differ 

 much less in rhythm than in melodic progressions. The younger 

 singer used exactly the same tones, but in some parts of the song he 

 used the intervals in a slightly different order. The characteristic 

 rhythm is identical in the two records. 



No. 116. "As THE Hawk Soars" (Catalogue no. 210) 



Sung by Ga'ganoac' 



The second word in this song suggests to the Chippewa the course 

 of a bird which flies forward a short distance, then circles, and then 

 flies forward again. The Chippewa thought that the hawks were 

 halfway to the top of the sky because they flew so high, and this 

 song was probably inspired by the sight of a flock of hawks flying 

 and circling high overhead. 



Analysis. — The harmonic structure of this song divides it into two 

 parts, the first based on the minor triad with the minor seventh^ 

 added, and the second on the tonic triad and sixth. The tones of 

 the first chord are repeated during fourteen measures, the F sharp 

 sinking to E on the fifteenth measure. This introduces the tonic 

 chord in the key of A, and the latter part of the song is composed 

 of the tones of the tonic triad and sixth in the key of A. The first 

 part of the song suggests the close attention with which one follows 

 moving objects; the satisfying resultant chord and the free melody 

 with its even rhythm suggest the return of the singer's attention to 

 his song and to his more immediate surroundings. 



a The Indian who composed this song is now a clergyman of the Episcopal Church, Rev. (Jeorge Smith. 

 When he was a little boy he often painted his face and fasted five days because he wanted to be a " spirit 

 man; " when he was 15 or 10 years of age he composed this song in his dream. The preparation for his 

 life work was according to the native customs, but he is doing that work in the white man's way. 



b Prof. J. C. Fillmore found this tonality among the Dahomey sangs collected at the World's Colum- 

 bian Exposition at Chicago and Mr. H. E. Krehbiel (In a paper read before the Folk-lore Congress, July, 

 1894) cited similar instances among the songs of the American negroes. Professor Fillmo'-e recorded a 

 similar song from the Nass River Indians living in British Columbia. This tonality is found also in the 

 following songs of the present series: nos. 51, IIC, 127, 172. 



