/Songs 0/ the Copper Eskimos 295 



WEATHER INCANTATIONS 



All the songs under this heading are chants for the securing of fine weather 

 with the exception of three. Two are simply given as "Old Chants," one of 

 which is known to be a children's refrain, and one is for the healing of the sick. 

 Many of them are strikingly beautiful and not a few express in very real form 

 the desire for calm skies and gentle winds. There is about them, as the collector 

 has said, a reflection of the patience of the people and yet, it seems to the writer, 

 also some of their buoyancy of spirit which finds outlet even more in the dance 

 songs. What is the most evident of all is a keen appreciation of melodic beauty 

 and of what is fitting in the way of balance in design, that in musical art, at 

 least, is seldom so apparent among most primitive peoples, except in isolated 

 instances, especially among the peoples of North America. 



There are no groups among these songs which may be made on the basis of 

 formal structiu'e, although many show distinct designs which are really artistic 

 wholes. A few resemble in plan the dance songs which we have just discussed, 

 but none are perfect types so that it could be said that dance songs had been 

 taken over bodily to be used as weather incantations, or vice versa. But there 

 is little doubt but what the dance form has impressed itself sufficiently, if un- 

 consciously, on the minds of the people so that its influence has extended even 

 to the chants, and it may be that the spurious forms which have been grouped 

 last in the three sets of dance songs are reflections of the forms of weather 

 incantations, for many of the latter are not unlike them in general structure. 



No amount of description would equal a careful examination of the songs 

 themselves, together with the analyses and the comments which accompany 

 each song. Only in this way may their interesting designs and often beautiful 

 melodies be known and appreciated. There are among them a number of 

 versions of the same tunes, which, if they are not mentioned as they are en- 

 countered in their order, will be listed later with other variants. 



In the entire collection a number of such "duplicates" are found which, 

 however, never are real duplicates but versions or variants which afford most 

 interesting material for comparison. So far as has been discovered there are no 

 weather incantations which are variants of dance tunes, or vice versa. 



A very much larger percentage of the weather incantations are minor in 

 tonality than was the case with the dance tunes. Counting in, because they 

 are so few and not unrelated, the three songs which are not chants to the spirits 

 who control the weather, out of 29 songs 14 are major, 3 modulate from major 

 to minor, 11 are purely minor and 1 is irregular. In two cases there are two 

 songs in one, in one of which cases the second song involves a modulation to a 

 new major tonality. 



Nine songs begin on the fifth of the major, two on the seventh of the minor, 

 which is relatively the same tone, but one of these is a raised seventh. One of 

 the major songs is indefinite as to key, as we would designate it, so that the 

 fifth might be considered the tonic, if another key were judged a more correct 

 representation of the actual situation of the melody. This, with three other 

 cases in which the start is made on the tonic, would make that number four. 

 Four also start on the third of the major key and eight on the fifth of the minor, 

 which is relatively the same tone. One commences on the fourth of the major, 

 a very unusual beginning in any Eskimo tune, while one other starts on the 

 tonic of a minor key, and one on the third of the minor. 



