282 THE HAKO, A PAWNEE CEBEMOWy [eth. ANN. 22 



pie i)lan. It is made up of many rituals, each complete in itself, but 

 all no related to each other as to form an unbroken sequence from the 

 beginning of the rites to their end. Each ritual contains one general 

 thought, which is elaborated by songs and attendant acts. These 

 songs and acts are so closely related to the central thought that one 

 helps to keep the other in mind ; moreover, the thought embodied in one 

 ritual leads so directly to the thought contained in the next tliat they 

 form a sequence that, in the mind of tlie Pawnee, can not logically be 

 broken, and thus the presei'vation of the entirety of the ceremony is 

 insured. 



The compact structure of the llako ceremony bears testimonj' to the 

 mental grasp of the people wlio foi'mulated it. As we note the balanc- 

 ing of the various pai'ts. and the steady progression from llio open- 

 ing song of the first ritual to tlie closing prayer in the twentietli, and 

 recall the fact that the ceremony was constructed witliout the steady- 

 ing force of the written record, we are impressed, on the one hand, by 

 the intellectual power displayed in the construction, and, on the other, 

 by the shariily defined beliefs fundamental to the ceremony. 



RHYTHHUC F.XPTJESSIOX IX THK CEREMOIVY 



When we examine the songs which accompany evei\y ceremonial act 

 we find that the thought to be expressed has determined the rhythm, 

 which, in its turn, has controlled both words and music and fixed as 

 well the time or duration of the notes. The unit of time is marked 

 by pulsations of the voice or by drum beats, and tlie words are found 

 bent by elisions or stretched by added vocables to make them con- 

 form to the musical measur(\ 



Rhythm dominates the rendition, which is always exact, no 

 liberties lieing taken for the purpose of musical expression, in our 

 sense of tlie term. Any sucli ti-eatment would so blur tlie song to the 

 native ear as to destroy its charactei-. A further use of rhythm is 

 manifest in the number of the musical phrases and stanzas. These 

 are found to correspond to tlie number of ceremonial motions used to 

 indicate the powers which ai-e being addressed. By close examina- 

 tion this peculiaritj' will be apparent, but in order to facilitate an 

 understanding the woi-ds of each musical phrase have been printed 

 as a separate line, so that the eye can easilj^ catch the rhythmic form. 

 As a further help, a diagram has been prepared to show the relative 

 time values of notes, the exceptional accents, and the voice i)ulsatious 

 of each musical phrase. To illustrate, take the first song: 



