40 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [biti.t.SS 



WAR SONGS (MIGA'dIWIN' NA'GUMOWi'nUN) 



This group comprises Nos. 122-132 and 154-172 in Bulletin 45, 

 and Nos. 1-50, 63-66, and 80-93 of the present work. On the war- 

 path these songs were accompanied by a small drum (see pi. 7) . At 

 the dances in the village, preceding the departure and after the return 

 of a war party, a large drum was used and the drummers were seated 

 around it. In recent years the war songs are sung at the social 

 dances of the tribe, accompanied by a drum similar to that used in 

 the Drum-presentation Ceremony (see pi. 18), but, according to the 

 writer's observation, less elaborately decorated. 



The war songs are of four kinds — the dream songs of individual 

 warriors, the songs concerning way charms and medicines (these two 

 having a connection witli tlie supernatural element), the songs of the 

 conduct of the war expedition, and those which commemorated its 

 success (the last having no supernatural element) . It is said that "in 

 the old days no warrior would have dared sing a war song that was not 

 composed in a dream," referring of course to the first two classes of 

 war songs. The third class includes the songs of the war messenger, 

 the dog feast, and the departure of the war party, and the fourth 

 class includes the songs which were composed by a returning war 

 party or in the victory dances which followed a successful expedition. 

 The boundaries between these classes of songs are not strongly 

 marked, and this division should be understood therefore as general 

 in character. 



Fifty per cent of the war songs are major m tonality, the same 

 proportion as in the songs for the entertainment of children. The 

 proportion of war songs beginning on the octave is 27 per cent, the 

 largest of any except the love songs. Seventy per cent of the songs 

 end on the tonic, the same proportion as in the woman's dance, but 

 larger than in the Mide' or in the dream songs. Seventy-six per cent 

 of the songs have a compass of ten or more tones, being exceeded only 

 by the dream and the moccasin game songs, which contain 77 per cent 

 having that range. The percentage of songs on the five-toned 

 scales is less than that of five other groups, but the proportion of 

 songs containing the octave complete except the seventh is larger 

 than in any other group except the Mide' and the begging dance. 

 The sixth lowered a semitone occurs more frequently in this than in 

 any other group. The purely melodic songs comprise 56 per cent, and 

 the allied class of melodic songs with harmonic framework comprise 

 25 per cent, showing the war songs to be largely melodic m structure, 

 the proportion being exceeded only in the love songs, woman's dance 

 songs, and songs for the entertainment of children. In 66 ])er cent of 

 the songs the first progression is downward. The number of intervals 

 of a second is much above the average, showing freedom of melodic 



