404 



Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



100; cf. Nos. 90, 104, 110. 



In closing it may be well to summarize the salient characteristics of Eskimo 

 -music as it is exemplified in the present collection, especially along those lines 

 which differentiate it from the music of such other primitive groups as the 

 tribes of American Indians with whose music we have an acquaintance. 



According to accounts of those who have visited them, the types of songs 

 of the Eskimo along the north coast of America are very limited in number, 

 and are confined to dance tunes, to magic songs which are mostly for the purpose 

 of influencing the weather, and which come the nearest of any to ceremonial 

 songs, to the tunes which children sing, although these are exceedingly rare 

 among the Copper Eskimos, and to topical songs like that of Asetsak. This 

 paucity of types contrasts very strongly with the different kinds of songs which 

 are found among the Indians, taking them as a whole, although from tribe to 

 tribe there are very great differences in the number of kinds as well as in their 

 melodic quality. Apparently the Eskimo have no work songs that might corres- 

 pond to the grinding, hunting, house building, weaving and other such Indian 

 songs. There are apparently no ceremonial songs of a Set character which might 

 be associated with rituals, like the Creation Ritual of the Pawnee, or with 

 medicine societies, like the Onondaga medicine songs, or with war, like some of 

 the inspiring warrior songs of the Iroquois. There are no love songs and no 

 lullabies other than the pisiks. This seems an almost incredible state of affairs 

 especially where topical songs exist, and probably these might be found to 

 furnish examples that would correspond to some of the types we have mentioned, 

 were they better known. But whether there are rare specimens in existence or 

 not, the fact remains that they are completely overshadowed by the more or less 

 conventional dance song and the incantations, or else are converted into them. 



We have already spoken ef the predominance of the major mode. This 

 seems to be the case also in the music of many Indian groups as it is in most 

 regions of the world. In the music of such tribes as I have studied, however, I 

 do not recall anything like the widespread use of a peculiar group of tones such 

 as the combination scale of the Copper Eskimo, although certain whole lists 

 of songs belonging to one ceremony may have a melodic similarity, and be 

 modelled on one pattern. But the feature is confined to songs of one type and 

 to one time and place and does not tinge the whole music of the tribe. 



On the whole Eskimo songs are longer and more varied than Indian songs, 

 which, if they attain any length, do so by almost direct repetition of a few very 

 limited musical ideas. Some Pawiiee songs might be called very long when they 

 are used for 56 steps in a ritual, and are sung through in their entirety each time 

 with only a change of one or two significant words, but in reality the musical 

 expression is short. The melodic themes of the Eskimo songs are not only qt -^n 

 more ample, but we find combinations of several themes and modulation o^ftll 

 sorts from one theme to another. A song may have as many as three or four 

 modulations and key settings, if we may be allowed the term in discussing a 



