204 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 53 



SONGS CONCERNING A BOY's FAST 



This and the song next followmg are associated with the old Indian 

 custom requiring youths to hold fasting vigils in the wilderness. 

 These are songs which E'niwiib'e's grandfather sang to him when he 

 was a boy and were secured only after the latter' s confidence in the 

 writer was fully established. The first song was sung when the boy 

 had blackened his face and was ready to go forth alone from the camp. 

 E'niwub'e said that he danced, and his grandfather sang the song. 

 The meaning of the words is obscure. We can not understand what 

 boyhood vision rose in the mind of the aged man as he asked a 

 boon for the child whose vision was yet to come. 



No. 100. Song Before a Boy Goes Out to Fast 



(Cat.aloo;ue No. 421) 



Sling by E^NiwuB^E 

 Voice J = 84 

 Drum J = 88 

 ( Drum-rhythm similar to No. 2 ) 



-F- -W- -»- -F- -•- -F- -F- ^- -F- -•-..L -•- -•- -•- -W-' -0- 



A - ni - nen-we-we a - ni - nen-we - we wa - zi-sw(in nim-bi - zln- 



da -go -ne 



a'ninfin^wewc^ the receding sound 



wa'ziswiin'' of the nest ' 



nim^bizinda''gone'' I listen to it 



Analysis. — The compass of this song is only four tones, comprising 

 the first, second, third, and seventh of the minor scale; it begins on 

 the third, descends to the second, and ends on the tonic. Eight 

 renditions of the song were recorded; these are uniform in rhythm 

 but uncertain in the intonation of the opening measures, the singer 

 seeming to have difficulty in giving intervals so small, with dis- 

 tinctness. (See Nos. 54, 55, 61, 64.) In contrast to this uncertainty 

 as to semitones and whole tones, we find the accidental in the third 

 measure and A flat near the close of the song given firmly and unmis- 

 takably. The whole tone between 7 and 8 is promment in this song. 

 (See Nos. 9, 50, 85, 119, 124.) The melody forms a good example 



> This may refer to the "nest" which a man built in a tree, in which he waited, fasting, for a vision (see 

 p. 84), though the use of the word "sound" in this coimection is obscure 



