a) 
Language and Folklore. 167 
in a poetical form, one drumming and singing against the other. 
These two were called akiare‘t ‘opponents.’ Their songs were often 
composed long before, carefully considered and rehearsed. The charg- 
ing song is called a piseq, his pisia, and the opponent’s retortion his 
akisa’. Both endeavour to ‘shape their songs in accordance with the 
songs transmitted, in the same style, and it is a general custom, 
though not always followed, that the singer borrows the introduction 
of his song from 
some old, well- 
known song that 
has been handed 
down from his an- 
cestors, whereafter 
— as after a prelude 
on the strings of 
the past—he spins 
on the thread in 
his own individual 
manner (for ex- 
amples hereof see 
nos. 173 to 186). 
Every man chooses 
his own forms of 
melodies and re- 
frains, possibly in- 
herited from his 
forefathers or char- 
acteristic of his 
family. When the 
natives had heard 
the first strains of 
a drumsong they | Fig. 22. Qilertaanalik viewed in profile. 
(W.T. phot. in spring 1906.) 
nearly always re- 
cognized the man 
or woman who “owned” it. This shows that everyone stuck to his 
particular refrains and melodies. 
The sense of the song is found in the short textlines (fa’iät) 
that alternate with the longer and regularly repeated refrains. These 
textlines, the burden of the poem, are full of weighty accusations 
and sneering references to the opponent; but they are not less replete 
with lamenting over the singer’s own difficult position, or over his 
failing power to sing drumsongs, or over his own mean and sorry 
self. This is often confessed with astonishing honesty, agreeing well 
