Songs of the Copper Eskimos 



INTRODUCTION 



Copper Eskimo Songs 



The most striking feature in the collection of songs given in the following 

 pages is the great wealth of dance-songs and the dearth of every other variety 

 of song, with the single exception of incantations to produce fine weather. 

 This is a true indication, however, of the nature of Copper Eskimo music. The 

 dance-house is the centre of social life, and it is open at all times to every age 

 and sex; only during certain stances are the younger children excluded. There 

 is no singing out of doors, for the natives believe that a spirit, carrying away 

 their words, might rob them of the breath of life. Hence there are no work- 

 songs in this region, no chants for the trail or the caribou-hunt; no game-songs, 

 although these are fairly common among Eskimos in other places'; and prac- 

 tically no rigmaroles or children's chants.^ Every notable incident, every 

 important experience or emotion in the daily life is recorded in a dance-song, 

 which takes the place to some extent of a local newspaper. When the Eskimo 

 returns from his hunting-ground at the close of the summer and rejoins the rest 

 of his band, he often weaves the story of his adventures into a song and teaches 

 it to his fellow-countrymen in the dance-house; when a woman croons her baby 

 to sleep on her back, or a man, restless during the long hours of the winter night, 

 seeks to relieve the tedium with a song, the only medium of expression is the 

 dance-song. 



Dance Songs 



Types 



The Copper Eskimos divide their dance-songs into two classes, pisiks and 

 atons, but no precise difference between them can be determined from their 

 present form. In the field I received the impression that the atons, as a rule, 

 were less formal than the pisiks; that is to say, they were not so palpably built 

 up on the principle of verse, refrain and connective. Miss Roberts has pointed 

 out, however, that some of the atons in this collection are quite formal, while a 

 few of the pisiks are as informal as any aton; she was unable to discover any 

 differences in the music of the two types. The actual classification of the records 

 was made by my Copper Eskimo assistants during transcription and translation, 

 but they themselves did not know how to classify certain songs. Even with the 

 other songs their guide was apparently not the music or the versification, but 

 the form of dance they associated with each. The Copper Eskimos have two 

 forms of dance, termed aton and pisik from the songs used with them; an aton 

 song is simply one that accompanies the aton form of dance, a pisik one that 

 accompanies the pisik form. It is not at all unlikely that certain songs are 

 used at different times, or in different places, with both forms of dance, so that 



1 In northern Alaska there is a chant for "hide and seek", a gambling song, a chant to the aurora and many others; 

 in the Mackenzie delta a song to accompany juggling with two stones; and in Hudson t>ay a chant or rigmarole for "cup and 

 ball." Chants accompanying string figures (the popular "cat's cradles") are exceedingly common to the, westward, but 

 are not found in the Copper Eskimo area. 



2 The only one that I remember hearing during two years of residence is recorded in No. 85. 



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