30 HJALMAR THUREN. 
hejaw” for 10 minutes, and then the melody suddenly “changed to 
a shrill note, in which the words “Weehee, weehee” were uttered 
with great rapidity.”! Unfortunately, Ross mentions nothing about — 
the melody. 
The first melody from these regions was recorded by KANE, who 
was at Cape York in 1853—55,* The melody appears as follows: 
(eta ate eS = 
oe + 
See 
Kane narrates that the Eskimo sang this song — which only 
had the text “Amnayah” — until the ears of the listeners “cracked 
with the discord”, and that further, in honour of the whites, they 
improvised a song, with the constantly repeated refrain “Captain — 
Captain, great Captain.” 
A complete collection of the songs of the Smith Sound Eskimo 
was made by R. STEIN, who was stationed at Cape Sabine in the 
winter of 1899—1900. The first melody he reproduces has only the 
text “haya ya ya”, exclusive of the concluding shout of laughter 
“wee, wee.” Stein often heard this song and found it distinctly full 
of expression, especially when sung by 6—8 voices. Stein was sur- 
prised at the ability of the singers to “keep exact time without a 
division of the melody into measures of equal length” — the same 
as I have observed in the case of East Greenlanders. When they 
gave the song as a solo, they varied it somewhat, and it seemed as 
if these individual additions were considered as the special property 
of each singer. 
Stein believed for a long time, that this was the only song the 
Polar Eskimo knew’, but found out by chance that they possessed 
a number of songs with true text. He recorded no less than 38 
melodies from the Eskimo at Cape York and Cape Sabine.* The 
text chiefly treats of the animal world. 
Sometimes the songs were composed in an archaic language, 
which the Eskimo themselves were often unable to explain. 
The song was given — as with the East Greenlanders — in “a 
low tone, inaudible thirty feet away.” The Eskimo protested against 
singing them any louder. Stein expressly remarks, that a reproduc- 
tion in our tonal system only gives the actual tones approximately. 
R. Stein, Eskimo Music (The White World, New York 1902), pp. 338—339. 
ibid. p. 339. 
The same view is also expressed in L. Mylius-Erichsen and Harald Moltke, 
Grønland, p. 553 (Kbhvn. 1906). 
4 R. Stein, Eskimo Music, pp. 340—354. cf. Globus, Vol. LXXXIII. 
Sp) bo = 
