132 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



I BULL. 53 



Analysis. — This melody presents an interesting study of rhythm. 

 It contains 19 measures and is divided into three parts, the first con- 

 taming 5 measures, the second 4, and the third 10. It has no rhythmic 

 unit, yet there is a melodic phrase which occurs three times — in the 

 second and third, and in the sixth and seventh, measures. It occurs 

 also in the tenth and eleventh measures, but in the latter instances the 

 first measure is a triple one, strongly accented on a tone not found at 

 the opening of the song. . If the first tone of the song were unaccented 

 it might be regarded as the second count of a triple measure, but it is 

 strongly and unmistakably accented. Five renditions of the song 

 were recorded, all identical. The metric unit of voice and drum is 

 the same, but in rendition the voice slightly preceded the drum. 



The following two songs were composed about a war expedition 

 which occurred when Odjib'we was a young man. The fight took 

 place on the praiide, a few miles north of the site of the present St. 

 Cloud, Minnesota. It was a hard-fought engagement and 20 Chippewa 

 were killed. One of the Sioux women seized an ax and attempted to 

 repulse the Chippewa who attacked her, but she and all her children 

 were killed. The father of Odjib'we composed this song concerning 

 the incident. 



No. 49. "The Sioux Woman Defends Her Children" 



(Catalogue No. 364) 



Voice J = 92 



Sung by Odjib^we 



Drum 



92 



( Drum-rhythm similar to No. 2 ) 



Ne - ta - gi -ca-wa - so - sig Wa-pe-tou bi - a - pi - sT - ka - dug go- 



Bi^^ff^pi^^^pg^^ 



ca-win bi-gi - ca-wa-sud 



WORDS 



neta^gica'wasosTg' once careless of her children 



Wape^toii ' (Sioux word) she of the Wapeton Sioux 



biilpi^sika'dug now comes in haste 



go'cawin^ surely 



bigica^wasud^ to their defense 



Analysis. — The five renditions of this song recorded are singularly 

 uniform. Not only is the rl\vthm identical, but slight variations in 



» See footnote, p. 70. 



