BULL. HO] 



PODUNK POGAMOGGAN 



271 



either the Mohegan or the Massachuset 

 dialect of Algonquian. The word is iden- 

 tical with l^otiink, a Long Island place- 

 name which, according to Ruttenber 

 (Ind. Geog. Names, 100, 1906), is presum- 

 ably a corruption of P^iuk-ohkc, 'a neck 

 or corner of land '. (a. f. c. ) 



Podunk. A' band or small tribe on Po- 

 dunk r., in Hartford co., Conn., closely 

 related to the Pocjuonnoc. Their princi- 

 pal village, also called Podunk, was at the 

 mouth of that river. They seem to have 

 gone off with the hostile Indians at the 

 close of King Philip's war in 1676, and 

 never to have returned. (j. m.) 



Podunck.— Willis (1666) in N. Y. Doc. Col. Hist., 

 ni, 121,1853. Podunks.— Stiles (1761) in Mass. Hist. 

 Soc. Coll., 1st s., X, 105, 1809. Windsor Indians.— 

 McClure (1797), ibid., v, 170, 1806. 



Poele. A Chumashan village on one 

 of the Santa Barbara ids., Cal., probably 

 Santa Rosa, in 1542. — Cabrillo, Narr. 

 (1542), in Smith, Colec. Doc. Fla., 186, 

 1857. 



Poelo ( Po-e^-lo ) . Said by Powers ( Cont. 

 N. A. EthnoL, iii, 39:5, 1877) to be a tribe, 

 related to the Paiute, on Kern r. slough, 

 s. E. Cal., but it is more probably merely 

 a place name. The section mentioned is 

 in Mariposan (Yokuts) territory. 



Poetry. ]\Iost Indian rituals can be 

 classed as poetry. They always relate to 

 serious subjects and are expre.ssed in dig- 

 nified language, and the words chosen 

 to clothe the thought generally make 

 rhythm. The lines frequently open with 

 an exclamation, a word which heralds 

 the thought about to be uttered. Prose 

 rituals are always intoned, and the deliv- 

 ery brings out the rhythmic character of 

 the composition. Rituals that are sung 

 differ from those that are intoned in that 

 the words, in order to conform to the 

 music, are drawn out by vowel prolonga- 

 tions. If the music is in the form of the 

 chant, but little adju.stment is required 

 beyond the doubling or prolonging of 

 vowels; but if the music is in the form 

 of the song, the treatment of the words 

 is more complex; the musical phrase will 

 determine the length of a line, and the 

 number of musical phrases in the song 

 the number of lines to the stanza. To 

 meet the recjuirements of the musical 

 phrase the vowels in some of the words 

 will be prolonged or doubled, or voca- 

 bles will be added to bring the line to the" 

 measure required by the music. In many 

 instances similar or rhyming vocables are 

 placed at the close of recurring musical 

 phrases. This device seems to indicate a 

 desire to have the word sound recur with 

 the repetition of the same musical phrase, 

 affording an interesting suggestion as to 

 one of the possible ways in which metric 

 verse arose. Where vocables are added 

 to fill out the measure of a line, or are 

 exclusively used in the singing of a phrase 



or a song, they are regarded as being un- 

 changeable as words, and no liberties are 

 ever taken with them. 



The same treatment of words in their 

 relation to the musical phrase is observed 

 in the secular songs of tribes. In those 

 sung b}^ the various societies at their 

 gatherings, or those which accompany 

 the vocations of men or women in love 

 songs, war songs, hunting songs, or mys- 

 tery songs, the musical phrase in every 

 instance fixes the rhythm and measure, 

 and the words and vocables are made to 

 conform to it. In many of these songs 

 the words are few, but they have been 

 carefully chosen with reference to their 

 capability of conveying the thought of 

 the composer in a manner that, to the 

 native's mind, will be poetic, not prosaic. 

 Moreover, the vocables used to fill out 

 the measure are selected so as to har- 

 monize with the thought that the words 

 and music jointly seek to convey; they 

 are flowing when the emotion is gentle or 

 supplicating, but broken and sharp when 

 defiance or aggression is the theme. The 

 picturesquequality of Indian speech lend^ 

 itself to poetic conceits and expressions. 

 The few words of a song will, to the In- 

 dian, portray a cosmic belief, present the 

 mystery of death, or evoke the memory 

 of joy or grief; to him the terse words 

 project the thought or emotion from the 

 background of his tribal life and experi- 

 ence, and make the song vibrant with 

 poetic meaning. 



Many of the rites observed among the 

 natives, from the Arctic ocean to the Gulf 

 of Mexico, are highly poetic in their sig- 

 nificance, symbolism, and ceremonial 

 movements; the rituals and accompany- 

 ing acts, the songs whose rhythm is ac- 

 centuated by the waving of feathered 

 emblems, the postures and marches, and 

 the altar decorations combine to make 

 up dramas of deep significance, rejjlete 

 with poetic thought and expression. 



The peculiarities of Indian languages 

 and the forms in which the Indian has 

 cast his poetic thought, particularly in 

 song, make it impossible to reproduce 

 them literally in a foreign language; never- 

 theless they can be adequately translated. 

 In the poetry of the Indianare blended his 

 beliefs, social usages, traditions of ancient 

 environment, and his views of nature, 

 making a record of great human interest. 

 See Music and Musical instruments. 



Consult Cushing, Zuiii Creation Myths, 

 1896; Matthews, Navaho Night Chant, 

 1902; Mooney, Ghost-Dance Religion, 

 1896; Fletcher, (1) The Hako, 1904, (2) 

 Study of Omaha Music, 1893, (3) Indian 

 Story and Song, 1900. (a. c. p. ) 



Fogamoggan. A club, cudgel, war-club: 

 from Chii>peyvA j)dgamdgan or pugnmdgan 

 (according to dialect), meaning, literally, 



