84 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 65 



ment of the sick. There were also recorded several folk-stories 

 given by a very aged woman in the manner of a chant. The songs 

 are very diversified and show the people to be unusually musical. 

 Among the Chippewa and the Sioux there were old men who said 

 that when they were young the medicine-men received songs in 

 dreams, but among the Ute this is a custom of the present time. 

 Many " dream songs " were recorded, among them a set of six 

 songs by a young man who said they " were taught him by a little 

 green man who lived in a little stone house far up the mountain." 

 Much interesting information was received concerning this mythical 

 " green man." 



The industries of these people also received consideration, and a 

 collection of specimens representative of these industries was pur- 

 chased. Among these was a bowl-shaped basket, which in old times 

 was placed over an excavation in the ground, the singers sitting 

 around it and accompanying their songs by the rasping together of 

 two sticks, the longer of which was notched. This notched stick 

 rested upon the inverted basket and the shorter was rubbed across it. 

 This music is used only in the Bear Dance, which appears to be 

 peculiar to these people and is still held every spring. A Sun Dance 

 was performed last June in direct violation of orders from the 

 Government. The Sun Dance ground was visited. Neither the 

 Bear Dance nor the Sun Dance was held during Miss Densmore's 

 visit, but she attended a Turkey Dance, which is the mid-summer 

 dance of the tribe and is held about once a month. 



In connection with the industries of the Ute Miss Densmore 

 secured a fire-making apparatus in which a blunt stick and sharp 

 sand were used, instead of the usual pointed stick. The " hearth " 

 was similar to that in use among many tribes, except that it contained 

 a little reservoir for the sand and a " spillway " through which the 

 sand, heated by the friction of the rotated stick, could run down upon 

 the fragments of bark to be ignited. A unique specimen of woven 

 work was made for Miss Densmore, consisting of a net for fish or 

 rabbits, formed of the outer bark of reeds, a very delicate tissue 

 which required skilful manipulation to make it into a substantial net. 



Many visits were made to the camps, figure 80 showing a typical 

 summer abode of these Indians. Their winter homes are log huts 

 with earth floors. At some distance from Whiterocks is the burying- 

 ground of the Ute. The burial places are marked by the bones of 

 horses slain at the death of their owners. An offering of corn had 

 been placed in one of the trees, and from another hung the head of a 



