252 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 53 



entire body. With some the motion seemed to begin in the shoulders 

 and progress with sinuous grace to the feet, while in others shrugging 

 and twisting of the shoulders were seen. (Pis. 44, 45.) 



The drum used, which was of native manufacture, was about 24 

 inches in diameter and 12 inches in height; it was covered with 

 untanned hide. The drum was suspended between four crotched 

 sticks driven firmly into the ground (see p. 147). The singers at the 

 drum usually numbered six or eight. In beginning the leaders sang 

 a few bars alone, after which the others took up the song. 



During the dancing food consisting of slices of beef boiled without 

 salt, triangular pieces of bread cooked in skillets beside the campfire, 

 and bits of bread dough fried in hot fat, considered a special delicacy, 

 was distributed. The older Waba'cmg Indians have not yet acquired 

 a likmg for salt, which was unknown to them until a few years ago 

 (see No. 168). 



According to the Canadian Indian Awun'akum'igicktin' ("fog 

 covermg the earth"), his people have rarely heard a piano, organ, or 

 any other tuned instrument. He has always lived with the same 

 group of Chippewa, drifting with them from one camp to another. 

 He was a man about 30 years old, who appeared to be a full-blood 

 Chi2)pewa. He spoke no English. He said that when he was a little 

 boy he "sat with the old men," listening to then' singing and learning 

 their songs, but that now he sang the songs which the men of his 

 village "made up in their dreams." He sang in falsetto voice with a 

 peculiar throaty vibrato. He said that he discovered his ability to 

 do this when he was a boy and had cultivated it ever since. 



The other singers were A'jide'gijig ("crossing sky"), an old man 

 who seldom leaves Waba'cing and who wears his hair in long braids; 

 Ki'miwtin ("rainy"), a man of middle age who is prominent in the 

 tribal councils; Ki'miwtina'nakwad ("rain cloud"), who had a par- 

 ticularly good voice, and Gegwe'djibi'tM ("sitting near it"), who 

 sang only one song. 



Reproduction of these songs by the phonograph afforded the 

 Indians much pleasure. The phonograph was placed in the door of 

 the little carpenter shop in which the songs had been recorded. The 

 Indians were grouped outside and the sunset light rested on their 

 eager, intent faces. Beyond were the wigwams and the shining lake. 

 It was a picture long to be remembered. 



Dream Songs ^ 



Forty songs were recorded at Waba'cing, 26 of which were said to 

 have been composed in dreams. It is probable that most of the 

 C^hi])pewa dream songs were used in war. This is not difficult to 

 understand. The young man who had a dream in his fasting vigil 



1 See p. 37. 



