ON THE NORTH-WESTERN TRIBES OF CANADA. 561 



Music and Song {lio'ndwasad'^meh, I sing). 



The absence of musical instruments is very noticeable amongst the 

 Upper Kootenays, but they appear to have possessed several in the past. 

 Among these were a sort of reed pipe and a kind of flute (?) made of the 

 leg-bone of a large species of bird. The Lower Kootenays still possess 

 the Kootenay drum, made as follows : — A rather large stick is bent into a 

 circle by the aid of fire, and over this is stretched, tambourine fashion, a 

 piece of deer-skin. The Aqk'aye'nik Kootenays are said to be the only 

 oneswho now make these drums (A't<«i)2y'/iLi<Z); they are beaten with a wooden 

 stick called kitCi' niohd' motl. In their gambling songs the Lower Kootenays 

 use wooden sticks, called dqse'et, with which they beat upon a log. 



In the old days the Kootenays had very many gambling, dancing, and 

 medicine songs. The Indians, under mission influence, have abandoned 

 most of these, their places having been taken by the religious exercises of 

 the Church. The children at the mission sing well, both in Indian and 

 in English. In the evening the older people sing mission songs in their 

 native tongue. Amongst the Lower Kootenays some of the old songs 

 still survive. 



While travelling on horseback some of the younger Indians sing re- 

 frains like this : To to to to! turn turn turn ! td td td td ! tai tai tai tai! 

 accompanying it with rhythmic motions of the hands or with slaps with 

 the hand upon the flanks of the horse. Another refrain, chanted with 

 an infinite variety of inflexion and intonation, is the following : — 



lexion and intonation, is t. 



Hai yd ! hd he yau ! 

 E yd ! hd hd hai yau ! 

 He yd! ho yd ! &c. 



The Indian A'mElii was very fond of repeating in rhythmic fashion the 

 word tcma'tlue'tEm, which he declared to be nothing but ' cultus wawa ' 

 (Chinook jargon for 'mere chatter' or 'idle utterance'), having no 

 signification. 



The Lower Kootenays are very much in love with gambling, which 

 vice, through the efforts of the missionaries, has been entirely suppressed 

 amongst the Upper Kootenays. In the gambling dance they chant 

 Hai yd ! hai yd ! hai yd he, repeated an infinite number of times, inter- 

 spersed with yells of ho ho ! hd hd ! he he hai hai ! hu hil ! &c. Another 

 gambling refrain \s,l%% ! yd e e e ! 



The gambling consists in guessing in which hand one (on which a 

 ring of bark is left) of two sticks of wood is hidden. The players sit in 

 two rows facing each other, and a number of them keep beating on a log 

 in front of them with sticks, while the sticks are passed from hand to hand. 

 From time to time some of the players sing or contort their limbs in various 

 ways. In its essentials the game is the same as the Chinook game 

 described by Paul Kane ('Wanderings of an Artist,' p, 193), who has not 

 failed to note ' the eternal gambling song he hah ha!' 



The following songs were obtained from Paul, a Tobacco Plains 

 Kootenay, and were stated by him to be very old : — 



Ki'tamii'Qotl ka'kiiwe'tl titk'at pa'tlke. 

 Drum dance man woman. 



1892. 



