6 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 187 



Individual Chants of Men (ado we'): 



Function. — The third of the four great rituals, personal thanksgiving* 



Occasions. — Always preceding Drum Dance, at Tonawanda also on 

 the sixth day of Midwinter; interpolated in the towisas ceremony of 

 women planters. 



Songs. — Unaccompanied by percussion, but introduced by a long 

 wail of men's voices and continuing with a background of male 

 'heh, heh' and female clapping. Completely individual and varied 

 from simple to complex melodies. 



Dance. — A simple circuit with a halting walk, by the singer and 

 sometimes a companion, covering one side of a square for each song 

 repetition. 



RITUALS ADDRESSED TO THE MIDPANTHEON 



Ashes Stirring (gan6iowi'): 



Function. — Dream fulfillment. 



Occasions. — Opening mornings of Midwinter Festivals, Coldspring 

 on first and second days, Tonawanda second and third days. 



Songs. — Individual. Tonawanda examples available for this col- 

 lection. 



Dance. — No dance, only the ceremony of fire renewal. 



Eagle Dance (gane'gwd'e'): 



Function. — Dream fulfillment and cure for "eagle sickness" by 

 placating the spirit of the Dew Eagle (shada'g^a'), association with 

 war and peace. 



Occasions. — Private rituals in the patient's home and renewal at 

 the Midwinter Festival; at Coldspring on the third and fifth days, at 

 Tonawanda on the second day. 



Songs. — Two singers seated on a bench set against the wall, the 

 leader with a drum, the assistant with a horn rattle. 



(a) Coldspring: three introductory chants for a tobacco invocation, 

 and for the distribution of instruments to the singers and parapher- 

 nalia to the dancers. Free melodic style with sequential descent, to 

 percussion tremolo. Tonawanda: two introductory chants, in even 

 more rhapsodic style, steeper descent and more intervals of a fourth, 

 than at Coldspring. 



(b) Coldspring: 14 dance songs, all with a recurrent formula of 

 alternate percussion tremolo and regular beat to a melodic pattern of 

 A A B A B. Tremolo during A, a variable pattern of quarter and 

 eighth notes during B, with three rapid terminal beats. Four- and 

 five-tone scales built variously on a nucleus of a second and a third 

 (see Analysis), and centered on the main tone. Moderate descent 

 from the initial fifth to the terminal main tone. Tonawanda: seven 



