LA FLISCBE] 



NI -KI WI -GI-ES 



295 



her back the bag, drawing the carrying strap around her shoulders, 

 and stands with the pole in her right hand. The woman is the 

 planter, the cultivator, the harvester of the corn, and this little scene 

 is meant to portray the important part she plays in the drama of life. 

 In the song she is made to speak of her own actions as she plants the 

 grains that are to spring into life and bear the fruit that will feed 

 her people. As the season for planting draws near she clears the field 

 of dead stalks and weeds, mellows the earth with her crude hoe, and 

 then builds the little hills that stand with their faces looking upward 

 to the sun to receive its animating rays. When all the little hills 

 have been made, she begins her planting by thrusting a sharpened 

 pole into the center of the sunny side of a hill, and into the hole thus 

 made she drops five, six, or seven grains of corn. Then she performs 

 the last act, which is regarded as the most significant and sacred; she 

 places upon the mound, over the hole, the imprint of her foot. It 

 must be her right or her left foot, according to the tribal division to 

 which she belongs. It is this particular act to which each of the 

 11 stanzas of the song refers. As the A'-ki-ho° Xo'-ka sings the 

 women stand beating time upon the ground with the lower ends of 

 their planting poles. 



THE PLANTING SONG 



Traoscribed by Alice C. Fletcher 



M.M. J- 112 



Time beats 



r r r 



gi-gthe no" do° - ho" no", A 



gi - gtho no" do" - ho" 



r r r r r r ■ * r • 



A - 9i-gthe no° do"-ho°, A - gi-gthe no" do" - ho" no". A - gi-gthe no" 



4^^ 



Sr 



=&=4= 



s|2^ 



i 



r "n r ^ r 



do" -ho" no", A -gi-gthe no" do" -ho" no", .\ 



he the the the he. 



Only the first line of each stanza will be translated, as all the other 

 fines are repetitions or vocables : 



A-gi-gthe no" do^-ho" no", A-gi-gthe no" do"-ho" no", 

 A-gi-gthe no" do "-ho", 



A-gi-gthe no" do"-ho" no". A-gi-gthe no" do"-ho" no", 

 A-gi-gthe no" do°-ho" no" A he the the the he. 



