394 .Canadian Arctic Expedition, 191S-18 



Weather Incantations 



The other scales have been grouped according to their afhliations, but those 

 from the Inland Hudson Bay, the Mackenzie, and Point Hope, Alaska, have 

 been kept separate. No other pronounced preference for tone selection such as 

 the one just discussed has been noted. The four songs Nos. 24, 29, 31, and 46 

 (the second song), seem to have nearly the same scale tones and some of these 

 are peculiar enough to be noteworthy, but the songs do not sound alike and 

 apparently have nothing in common.^ Another set ranges from the second above 

 the octave of the tonic, or the ninth, to some point about an octave below 

 or even drops to the fifth degree in the octave below the tonic, but they 

 are more varied than the major and minor combination with the seventh of the 

 major as the highest tone. There are also, naturally, some groupings ranging 

 from the octave of the tonic downward even as far as the fifth in the second 

 octave, and another largely minor group, in which the tones do not extend 

 above the sixth degree. There are not many songs in the entire collection which 

 have a range much beyond an octave and the greatest range of all the songs 

 taken together is two octaves and a third, if men's and women's voices are 

 not differentiated. 



It has already been said that the feeling for the tonic does not appear to be 

 as well established in Eskimo music as in that of some other primitive peoples. 

 Among certain tribes of American Indians, for instance, especially in certain 

 groups of ceremonial songs, the feeling for the tonic is very strong. In these 

 Eskimo songs this is largely supplanted by a general level on the third degree 

 of the major scale or the fifth of the minor. 137 songs comprise the entire col- 

 lection, not counting the examples in which fusion of two or more tunes has 

 occurred. Of these 24 are from other than the Copper Eskimo region. The 

 following observations are based on the remaining 113 songs. Thirty cases 

 reveal a preference for the third of the major as a resting tone and general level, 

 which in most cases is pronounced. To these are to be added fourteen in which 

 the fifth of the minor serves this purpose, totalling 44 cases. The tonic of the 

 major is preferred in only 19 cases, and there is but one instance of the third of 

 the minor being used, thus totalling 20 instances; but there is also one case of 

 the octave of the tonic. 12 cases are found for the fifth of the major scale 

 and 8 for the tonic of the minor; the others are scattering. 



In the Mackenzie River region the general level is pretty well divided 

 between the tonic and the fifth, and in both of the other regions is scattered. 

 The collections from these places are too small for any conclusions to bear much 

 weight. 



I Another instance of the deceptive character ot scales showing the tonal content is in Songs 16 and 49 which appear on 

 this basis to belong to the combinational group we have just discussed, but which in reality have nothing in common with 

 t, except most of the tones of which they are composed. • 



