496 The American Naturalist. [May, 
stage of perfection that it can be profitably used for that purpose. 
Hitherto a source of error in recording aboriginal folk-tales has been 
the liability of the translator to incorporate his own interpretations 
with those embodied in the stories as heard by him, and, as a result, 
erroneous interpretations have been introduced which it is difficult to 
eradicate. In order that folk-lore, as far as applicable to aboriginal 
races, may be placed on a scientific basis, an accurate record of the 
story as told by the reciter is necessary. This can be accomplished by 
the use of the phonograph, and the records thus made can be indefi- 
nately preserved. 
The essayist visited, for the purposes of study, a remnant of the 
Passamaquoddy Indians near Calais, Maine, and obtained from some 
of the older men many fragments of legends, stories, ancient songs, 
country out rhymes and conversations, He also obtained from the lips 
of Noel Josephs, who sang it when the ceremony was last performed, 
an old song used in the ‘‘ Snake Dance.’’ The words of this song are 
archaic and the music is said to be very ancient. He also took records 
of war songs, a curious “‘ trade song,” and the song sung by the chief 
on the evening of the first day of the celebration of his election. 
These songs have been set to music from the records taken on the wax 
cylinders of the phonograph, and the words have been written out by 
€ same means. In several of the legends obtained by the use of 
the phonograph, songs occur which are said by all the Indians to be 
very ancient. Forty cylinders were filled with these records, some of 
which are stories yet unpublished. 
The results of this experiment have, it is claimed, shown that the 
phonograph is an important help to the student of Indian folk-lore, not 
only in preserving the tales, but also in an accurate study of the com- 
position of the music and the language. 
To indicate its value, the spelling of the words, as spoken by the 
machine is found, to convey, as nearly as possible by phonetic methods, 
the pronunciation of the Indian words. _ 
‘These studies of the Passamaquoddy language were undertaken as a 
preliminary to a visit to the Zuni Indians for the purpose of working 
out the archzological and ethnological results of the Hemenway Ex- 
pedition. A more extensive account of these phonographic studies of 
the Passamaquoddies will be published in the next number of the 
Journal of American Lolk-Lore.—J. W. FEWKES. 
