FLETCHER— A BIRTHDAY WISH 



In the past life in our land, this ceremony has played an important 

 part and exercised a far-reaching influence. On the material side it 

 caused commodities to be exchanged, whereby the handicraft of one 

 region was made known to other sections. On the immaterial side, 

 the thoughts of the native seers expressed in the rite bore forward 

 the mind of the people toward a conception that closely approached 

 that of the brotherhood of man, a conception recognized as among the 

 noblest known to the human family. 



In 1884 the British Association for the Advancement of Science 

 and the American Association for the Advancement of Science met 

 at Philadelphia. On that occasion the writer carried the sacred objects 

 belonging to this ceremony on what was probably their longest jour- 

 ney, in order that, for the first time, the songs of the rite might bear 

 their message of peace and good-will across the line of race, and, 

 through the human spirit of the ceremony of which they were a part, 

 bring together the peoples of the old and of the new America. 



Once more the spirit of this ancient ceremony is evoked! The 

 following hitherto unpublished song from the Oto version of the rite 

 is here presented in its native guise, that it may convey to him, whom 

 we honor and who is gifted to discern beauty under a strange exterior, 

 the wish, which is the burden of the song, that to him may be granted 

 the perennial happiness that knows not years, being ever the com- 

 panion of immortal youth. 



M. M. * = 132. 



SONG 



Pgp^ 



J^- 



Sj*— 1 



utafc 



No^-we shka-dse, no n -we shka-dse; Ha-ha! e he tha, Ha-ha! 



-*--•-.-#■ i ■*■-&-&-+ -*■ 



we Ha-ha! e he tha, Ha-ha! e Ha-ha! e he tha tha. Ho n -ga! 



SBHi 



fe£ 



d d w 



I 



a- 



No n -we shka-dse, no n -we shka-dse; Ha-ha, e he tha. 



No n -we shka-dse, no n -we shka-dse; 



Ha-ha! e he tha, Ha-ha! we Ha-ha! e he tha, 



Ha-ha! e he tha tha. Ho n -ga! 



No n -we shka-dse, no n -we shka-dse; 



Ha-ha! e he tha. 



[121] 



