INCANTATIONS OF THE KLAMATH LAKE PEOPLE. 169 



58. Song of the turtle: 



Tudklnlshl^-ula? -^| -\^ 



Which game did you play with me? 



NOTES. 



This loug series of shamauic songs in use on the Williauisou Elver was obtained 

 from Mary, a young pupil of the boarding school of Indian children at the Klataath 

 agency. When living among the Indians on the Williamson Eiver she had heard all 

 these songs very frequently, and in an interesting evening entertainment she faithfully 

 reproduced the manipulations of the male and female conjurers upon a little rag baby 

 lying on the floor on a bed made up of old blankets, the figure representing some poor 

 suffering Indian patient. The other Indian girls of the school joined in a lively chorus 

 every time when she had fairly started any of these incantations, and given the signal 

 by clapping hands. 



On the day following these incantations were dictated, translated and explained 

 to me by Minnie Froben, assisted by Mary, and though both persisted in the statement 

 that the order in which the songs are sung was quite immaterial, I present them here 

 in the order in which I obtained them. 



Each of these song-lines is sung many times by the conjurer, then repeated by the 

 chorus a dozen times or more. The chorus varies the melody somewhat ea«h time, but 

 this musical variation is so slight nnd insignificant that the general impression of 

 monotony is not dispelled by it. Quite a number of these songs have very pretty 

 melodies, but by long repetition even these must of course produce tediousncss and 

 disgust: other songs have weird and strange tunes, others are quaint, but almost 

 repulsive by their shrill accents; these may be said to form the transition to the mere 

 howls and imitations of animal voices, which are frequent also in doctoring ceremonies, 

 but more frequent in the war-shouts and funereal cries and wailings. 



The animal i>r object of nature to which the conjurer attributes each of the song- 

 lines was not remembered in every instance. Where this reference was obtained, it 

 was added at the head of tlic song or song-line. The animals mentioned in these songs 

 are all supposed to have been sent out by the conjurer to look out for the whereabouts 

 of the personified disease, from which the patient is suffering, and whatever the con- 

 jurer sings about the animals refers to what he sees them doing while on their errand. 

 On the distinction made between shui'sh and shuino'tkish cf. Note to song 0. 



Kiiiksam shui'sh is not merely a conjurer's song, but a mysterious agency con- 

 nected with a spell of preternatural power. This spell is not exclusively attached to 

 a song sung by a conjurer, but it may be borne also by a dream, disease, by some 

 drug, or by that kind of witchcraft which is called elsewhere the evil eye. Kiuksam 

 shui'sh is therefore a beneficial or destnictive taminnash agency, which when applied 

 to a patient can cure liim or make him worse; when appearing under the shape of a 

 dream, it is a dream of good or one of bad augury. 



The conjurer sometimes diversifies his songs, all of which are sung in the minor 

 keys, by inserting spoken words relating to the condition of the patient and the effects 

 of his treatments; specimens of this are given in 38. 54. .55. Parts of them are also 

 repeated by the chorus. 



