DENSMoRE] MANDAN AND HIDATSA MUSIC Lit 
Bear-on-the-flat said that the words of this song were freely 
translated as follows: “That chief, I coveted his youngest wife. I 
must meet her on the sly.” It was said that the chief had several 
wives and that when the tribe was on the hunt the youngest wife 
indulged in a flirtation with another man. This caused the follow- 
ing song to be sung. 
No. 109. “The Youngest Wife of the Chief” 
(Catalogue No. 841) 
Recorded by BEAR-ON-THE-FLAT 
VOICE d = 16 
DRUM @ = 76 
Drum-rhythm similar to No. 37 
Analysis —This melody is major in tonality, yet more than half 
the intervals are minor thirds. In some renditions the words occur 
in the third appearance of the rhythmic unit, slightly changing the 
note values. The only melody tones are those of the major triad 
and second. Voice and drum have the same metric unit, the beat of 
the drum being in unaccented quarter-note values. 
One of the pleasing customs of village life was the singing on the 
roofs of the lodges. This usually took place in the evening when 
many persons were sitting on the roofs. Good Bear, who recorded 
the following song, died in 1918, before the collecting of the present 
material was completed. 
