SONGS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION. 309 
The roots I eat of the valley. 
Su/-i-bang kut-dul-lul’. 
The pepper-ball is round. 
Mo’-mih til-lak’ til-lak’-keh. 
The water trickles, trickles. 
Ta-a/-ti-ti yin-no-di’ ti/-is bum/-bum. 
The water-leaves grow along the river bank. 
Wi-li-pesh-o-yeh’ nan/-nih, bak-wi-lai/-lai. 
T rub the hands, I wiggle the tail (i.¢., 1 am gambling, from the motions made). 
Yo’-mih mai’-i-ni, yo’-mil mi’-mi-teh. 
Iam a doctor, I am a doctor. 
HAI/-KUT-WO-TO-PEH’S SONG. 
{Sung when Oan-koi/-tu-peh approached. J 
Yu-dik-noam/ bo u’-ye ni? 
Do you come from the north? (lit., the path to the north). 
Ko-mo-wim’ bo u’-ye ni? 
Do you come from the east ? 
Tai bo u’-ye ni? 
Do you come from the west? 
Ka/-nai bo u’-ye ni? 
Do you come from the south? 
Hi-pi-ning’ bo-o-di’ u/-ye-ni? 
Do you come from above ? 
Ko'-do ka’-na-neh u/-ye ni? 
Do you come from below ? 
In the acorn song, as above given, it will be observed that it appears 
to be spoken by two different persons. The first three verses are attributed 
by some Indians to Oankoitupeh, and by others to the Red Cloud. The 
latter would seem to be more poetically correct. Then the last line is 
evidently spoken by the acorn personified. I have grouped both these 
together, and called it all the acorn song, but the Indians sing them some- 
what confusedly, as indeed they do the other songs more or less. It required 
a great deal of patient labor to construct order out of their chaos; and even 
now I am not always positive, for some Indians will attribute a given verse 
to one of the personages and others to another. Besides that, the interpre- 
tation is sometimes a little uncertain, principally, I think, for the reason 
that a number of the words either belong to an occult, priestly language, or 
are so antiquated that the modern Indians, in the absence of most of their 
old men and prophets, are unable to agree absolutely upon their meaning. 
T have tabulated below all the archaic forms occurring in these songs, the 
meaning of which the Indians were agreed upon. 
