56 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 75 
the people’s hero; a very ancient melody, ‘In praise of song”; a 
“dialogue on melody”’; several love songs; and folk songs concerning 
the plowboy and the girl who watched the geese. 
On comparing the structural analyses of the Slovak and Indian 
songs we find the resemblances to be less than the differences, sug- 
gesting a widely different temperament in the peoples of the two 
races. These differences are much greater than between the songs of 
the several Indian tribes analyzed by the writer. 
Considering first the resemblances, we find that the percentage of 
songs with a compass of an octave is 30 in the Slovak and varies from 
21 to 35 in the Indian, except in a small group of Sioux songs recorded 
by Chippewa, in which it is smaller. There is also a resemblance 
in the proportions of ascending and descending major thirds and 
major seconds and in the ascending fourths. Among the differences 
we note that the minor third, which is so prominent in the Indian 
songs, occurs from one-fourth to one-half as frequently in the Slovak 
songs, while the minor second occurs from three to four times as fre- 
quently. The average interval in the Slovak songs is smaller than in 
the songs of any Indian tribe under analysis. In this connection it 
is interesting to note the contrast in the environment of the Slovaks 
and the Indians, the former, whose analyzed songs are characterized 
by a one-semitone interval, being a sedentary and agricultural people, 
and the latter, whose analyzed songs are characterized by a three- 
semitone interval (see p. 42), being a nomadic people, whose principal 
industries were hunting and fishing. The musical instinct is strongly 
marked in both peoples, and is part of the heritage of all the Slavs. 
The proportion of descending intervals and the proportion of songs 
beginning with a descending progression is much smaller in the 
Slovak than in the Indian songs, suggesting that the descending trend, 
characteristic of Indian songs, is not characteristic of Slovak songs. 
The change of measure lengths, occurring in 85 per cent of the Indian 
songs, is entirely absent from the Slovak. The percentage of songs 
beginning on the accented portion of the measure and of those begin- 
ning in 2-4 time is much greater in the Slovak than in the Indian 
songs. 
From the foregoing it appears that the Indian and Slovak songs 
under analysis differ in trend and in the principal interval of progres- 
sion. It also appears that the Slovak songs have more directness in 
beginning and more simplicity of rhythm. 
THE BEAR DANCE 
The characteristic dance of the Ute Indians is the Bear dance, 
which is held every year in the early spring. The intention is to hold 
the dance at about the time that the bear comes from his hibernation, 
ry 
