KuRATH] IROQUOIS MUSIC AND DANCE 69 



song differs from the usual structure, for it is one continuous melody 

 of three parts in rondo alternation. 



Passenger Pigeon: 



Another migratory but not aquatic bird was the passenger pigeon. 

 The Seneca ascribe human qualities to pigeons, and easily transfer 

 the actions into choreography. In this double-file round, Fenton 

 (1955, p. 5) suggests that "the slow, wheeling, rotating sequence of the 

 dance possibly resembles the passenger pigeon in flight, and the 

 double column, which the dance sometimes assumes, represents the 

 mass of the pigeons in migration." 



The passenger pigeon's size of 15 to 17 inches in length was suf- 

 ficient for a delicious morsel. This representative of the Columbidae 

 was one of the most abundant birds on earth. Dense flocks of millions 

 nested in the deciduous forests of the Eastern States and Canada 

 during spring migrations (Audubon and Grimson, 1950, p. 199). 

 The longhouses simultaneously celebrated the early harvest of maple 

 sugar and of squabs. However, by 1880 the birds had succumbed one 

 and all to the White man's guns. At Tonawanda longhouse Pigeon 

 Dance still opens the Maple Festival. At other longhouses it rerriains 

 as a social dance. 



Rohin: 



The American Robin or robin redbreast (of the Turdidae family), 

 though supposedly migratory, is bold and hardy, and sometimes win- 

 ters in temperate zones during mild winters. Too small for food value, 

 with an average 9-inch length, he is welcome as a jolly songbird and a 

 destroyer of insect pests (Audubon and Grimson, 1950, p. 260). His 

 quick motions and hop on two small feet are mimed in the dance. 

 He does not fly in formation hke the duck or passenger pigeon, and 

 the dance is not in double file, but in a single file, sideward progression. 



FISH 



The Iroquois do not specify the species of Pisces in their Fish 

 Dance, the way that Menomini and Winnebago refer to the sunfish 

 and the Yuchi to the garfish. However, they claim that the ground 

 plan refers to the passing and repassing of a fish couple during- the 

 mating season, and the step represents the flipping of the tail, the 

 wavy progress of the fish.^^ The ordinary fish of the Great Lakes 

 fresh waters is torpedo-shaped, with a fan-shaped tail as propeller 

 and several sets of fins as rudders, one or two dorsal fins, two ventral 

 fins, and a set by the jaws. These move hke rudders as the fish gUdes 



22 Nonetheless, the same step reappears in the Raccoon Dance and other dances unrelated to flsh. 



