> Songs of the ^Copper Eskimos 11 



often has the character of a contortionist performance.^ The song is first tried 

 over, as it were, the drummers tapping their drums very lightly while the dancer 

 beats time with one* foot, sways his body a little, and rhythmically waves his 

 arms to and fro at his side, joining at times in the singing. The song then begins 

 over again, the drums are struck more loudly and the music swells in volume. 

 Every muscle of the dancer becomes rigid, each clenched hand is stretched out 

 ill turn to one side while the other is held taut against the chest or launched 

 violently forward or upward. He stamps with one foot, keeping both knees 

 bent, contorts his body and shrugs his shoulders; now he stoops low towards 

 the ground, now throws back his head and hops around on both feet; from time 

 to time meaningless ejaculations burst from his lips. Every man has his own 

 peculiar style, but the general pattern of them all is the same.^ The song is 

 usually repeated once or twice, then succeeded with hardly a break by another 

 song until the dancer is exhausted and obliged to retire. The dancing of the 

 women is much less violent. During the preliminary rendering of the song they 

 comport themselves in almost the same way as the men ; but when the drums 

 are struck loudly for the repetition they sway lightly up and down with bent 

 knees and rhythmically wave their outstretched open hands until the music 

 ceases. 



At Point Barrow and Point Hope, in northern Alaska, the aton dance, the 

 only kind known apparently, is performed exactly as 'in the Mackenzie delta, 

 with the same arrangement of drummers and singers and the same distinction 

 between the dancing of the men and of the women.' 



Hudson bay. — ^No opportunity was afforded of witnessing any Hudson bay 

 dances beyond the impromptu ones given at our station by the two visitors 

 from whom Songs Nos. 126-132 were derived. These two men performed four 

 or five dances, all of the pisik type; the music seemed very monotonous, and 

 the movements of the chance still more so, the performer simply shuffling around 

 and around as he beat a rapid tattoo on his drum. If my memory serves me 

 correctly^ this is the typical form of dance throughout Hudson bay, Labrador, 

 Baffin island and Greenland. Not only does the aton form not exist in those 

 regions, but the word aton (and the stem atoq, "to sing," from which it is derived) 

 is unknown there, the ordinary term for a dance-song being pisik. 



Separate origins of the two dance forms. — The facts just presented strongly 

 suggest that the two dance forms now current among the Eskimos, the aton and 

 the pisik, were formerly quite distinct. The pisik is the characteristic dance of 

 the eastern division of the race, predominates among the Copper Eskimos, is 

 known in the Mackenzie delta, but probably does not extend into Alaska. The 

 aton belongs peculiarly to the western division, is the prevailing form in the 

 Mackenzie delta, exists as a minor variety among the Copper Eskimos, but 

 apparently extends no farther towards the east. The presence of both forms, 

 in inverse popularity, among the Mackenzie delta and Copper Eskimos can be 

 readily explained as due to mutual borrowing. 



It is no objection to this theory, but rather the contrary, that aton and 

 pisik dance-songs cannot be distinguished among the Copper Eskimos, nor, I 

 believe, among those of the Mackenzie delta, although there are quite marked 

 musical and structural differences between the danccrsongs of the two regions. 

 The older and more firmly established type of song in each place would exert an 

 overwhelming influence on the borrowed form; the aton would gradually be 

 assimilated to the pisik among the Copper Eskimos, the pisik to the aton among 

 the Eskimos of the Mackenzie delta. 



I The aton ol the Copper Eskimos is less fantastic and unnatural. 

 ( 2 The words of No. 121 give a good description from the native point of view. 



' The ordinary term for a dance-song in the Mackenzie delta and N. Alaskan dialects is aton, but Patitot, in his vocab- 

 ulary of the former, gives the term pisielc. He does not specify whether it is applied to all dance-songs, or only to those 

 accompanying one particular form of dance. In N. Aldska the word seems to be unlcnown. 



• This introduction was written in the field, away from all libraries aind books of reference. 



