Songs of the Copper Eskimos 



403 



CHAPTER 4. DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE SAME SONG AND 

 INSTANCES OF MELODIC BORROWING 



Although a whole section might be written on this subject, much that 

 \%i interest has already been given in the remarks accompanying the individual 

 songs. Perhaps, also, those who would pursue the matter will take greater 

 pleasure in discovering the variations for themselves, than in reading a long 

 description of them. 



It is easy to imagine how different versions of the same song came into 

 being. Not only are many tunes quite old, which fact alone would cause vari- 

 ations to creep in, but Mr. Jenness tells me that the songs divide into two kinds, 

 those which, like the incantations, are handed down from one generation to the 

 next in more or less stable form, and the dance songs, or topical songs. These 

 are very like the Jama songs of the West Indian negroes in which little events 

 that amuse or interest the people are set forth and pass rapidly from mouth to 

 mouth and region to region, taking on new phases as they go, to fit their varying 

 surroundings, finally becoming so changed that all but the main idea in the 

 words, and sometimes even that, vanishes into oblivion. The same tune, neces- 

 sarily, is carried with the song, and in the process of having new words set to 

 music which they do not fit, and of being mutilated on this account, or through 

 forgetfulness, it also in time is but a ghost of its former self, possibly retaining 

 only a little theme here and there to recall its earlier state. 



Fashions in music, like that for certain scale tones which we have just 

 mentioned, are also the cause of much confusion of similar tunes and the removal 

 bodily of whole sections from one song to another. Numerous instances of such 

 joining are to be found in this collection, and many times it is undoubtedly due 

 to the fact that the two songs have some little melodic feature in common. 



Due to the tingeing of so many songs with similar melodic conceptions it 

 is quite possible that some variants have been overlooked, for the student soon 

 becomes steeped in the welter of tunes that are nearly, yet not really alike, and 

 finds it difficult to recall whether a particular tonal combination has been heard 

 before or not. 



The following list will assist in locating probably the greater number of 

 variants, if not all of them. So far as I have observed, there is no borrowing 

 between dance songs and incantations. 



