28 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 80 
Taste 6.—TZ one material.—The five-toned scales mentioned in this 
table and in the descriptive analyses are the five pentatonic scales 
according to Helmholtz, described by him as follows: 
“1. The First Scale without Third or Seventh... . 
“9. To the Second Scale, without Second or Sixth, belong most 
Scotch airs which have a minor character... . 
“3. The Third Scale, without Third and Sixth... . 
“A, To the Fourth Scale, without Fourth or Seventh, belong most 
Scotch airs which have the character of a major mode. 
“5. The Fifth Scale, without Second and Fifth.” * 
The proportion of Mandan and Hidatsa songs containing five tones 
(scale degrees) is smaller than that in Chippewa and. Sioux songs 
and larger than in the Ute songs. The proportion of these songs con- 
taining less than five tones is 10 per cent larger than in the Chippewa 
and Sioux songs, and about the same as in the Ute. As the Chippewa 
and Sioux have been in contact with the music of the white race 
longer than the other tribes under consideration, we might infer that 
paucity of melodic material is a characteristic of the older native 
songs. This inference, however, is not upheld by the following com- 
parison between the groups of Mandan and Hidatsa songs. 
Seventy per cent of the Mandan and Hidatsa war songs and 39 
per cent of the society songs are five-toned melodies, but the latter 
are not songs of the societies said to have been organized by Good 
Fur Robe, which are presumably the older songs. In this group only 
20 per cent are five-toned melodies. Seven of the 12 eagle-catching 
songs contain either three or four scale degrees. Every group except 
the last (Nos. 103-110) contains one song having all the tones of 
the octave. It is interesting to note, in this connection, that 37 per 
cent of the Ute songs contain only four scale degrees. 
Taste 7.—Accidentals—In the proportion of songs containing no 
accidentals the Mandan and Hidatsa are lower than any preceding 
series, differing, however, only 1 per cent from the Sioux. These 
accidentals do not, in any instance, suggest a change of keynote, or 
“key,” but appear to be in the nature of embellishments. 
The largest proportion of accidentals in the Mandan and Hidatsa 
songs is found in the songs of Good Fur Robe’s societies, about one- 
third of which contain tones chromatically altered. Next in propor- 
tion are the songs of other societies (Nos. 58-76), less than one-fourth 
of which contain accidentals. 
Taste 8.—Structure—The percentage of harmonic and also of 
purely melodic songs is smaller in the Mandan and Hidatsa than in 
previous groups, a large increase being shown in the “mixed group,” 
whose structure is classitied as “melodic with harmonic framework.” 
4° Helmholtz, The Sensations of Tone, pp. 260, 261. 
