208 
dies are nearly always exceedingly brief, and the constant rejietition 
of only a few syllables on the same or approximately the same 
melodic theme becomes very monotonous. The irregular time is 
confusing, and the unfamiliar intervals often raise a suspicion that 
the singer is flattening or sharpening his notes unintentionally. We 
should remember, however, that it is hardly fair to compare our 
collections of Indian songs with European songs, for not only did all 
Indians sing, but nearly all, whether musically gifted or not, com- 
posed songs, and our collections have been gathered at hai)hazard 
without regard to their musical value, and often from very indifferent 
singers. There are certainly some very beautiful melodies, especially 
in Eskimo songs, if one has only time and jiatience to separate the 
gold from the dross. 
The impact of civilization had little effect on Indian music, but 
it exerted so profound an influence on aboriginal art that to-day we 
can hardly unravel the old art forms from those that have grown up 
during the last two or three centuries. This is ])articularly the case 
in eastern Canada, where the natives have been subjected to intensive 
acculturation since the seventeenth century, have intermarried largely 
with Europeans, and in many districts have lost practically all their 
Indian characteristics. In the prehistoric graves and village-sites of 
this eastern area we find realistic figures of animals, birds, and human 
beings carved on stone pipe-bowls, or modelled on pipe-bowls of clay, 
but artistically the work is rather crude, certaiidy much inferior to 
the stone sculpture and clay modelling of central America or of many 
parts of the Old World. Sculpture in wood was hardly more advanced, 
if we may judge from the remark of Charlevoix. ‘‘Their (Huron) 
cabins .... were adorned with figures in relievo, but of very 
coarse workmanship,”^ and from the grotescpie wooden masks still 
used by the Iroquoian False-Face societies. It is true that the 
grotesqueness of these masks is intentional and tliat they display a 
certain anatomical exactness; nevertheless, the carving seems coarse 
and unrestrained, as though sculptui'e was held in little esteem. The 
backs of modern Iroquoian cradle-boards are sometimes ornamented 
with elaborate floral carvings and bird figures, but these are the work 
1 Charlevoix, P. E. X, rle; “ Journal of a VoyaRO to North America” ; iraiishiteii from the French, 
toI. 2, p. 128 (London, 1761). Lescarhot speaks more favouraMy of the carving in the Maritime 
Provinces: "Our Souriqnois and Arnioiichiquois have the art both of paiiding and carviiiR. and make 
beasts, birds, and jnen in .stone and also in wood, as prettily as good workmen in these parts.” Les- 
carbot: Op. cit., p. 98. 
