OCR Text |
Show 146 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [ BULL. 75 SONGS USED IN TREATMENT OF SICK- Continued RHYTHMIC ANALYSIS- continued TABLE 21I*- TIME UNIT OF DRUM Drum nntranardPA.. _. . Number of songs 15 Serial Nos. of songs TABLE 22D.- COMPARISON OF TIME UNIT OF VOICE AND DRUM Dm?" no* if* » nr< 1< yl--- . ,, T r, . r. Number of songs 15 Serial Nos. of song? WAR SONGS While the general customs of war do not differ materially among Indian tribes, there are distinctive points in the customs of the several tribes that are of interest. Among the Utes, for instance, is noted the " washing of the wounded," and also a dancing in two circles, one within the other, when the scalps are carried in victory. Several aged warriors of the Ute recorded war songs, but recalled them with difficulty, as the Utes have not been at war with another tribe for many years. Their former enemies were said to have been the Sioux and Arapaho, one purpose in war being the capture of horses from these tribes. CHARACTERISTICS OF SONGS A majority of the Sioux and Chippewa war songs were found to be minor in tonality, but 69 per cent of the Ute war songs are major in tonality. Firmness and directness are further shown by the ending of the same percentage on the keynote and the beginning of 56 per cent on the octave. Eighty- seven per cent begin with a downward progression. The melodic material is scanty, only about one- half the songs containing more than four degrees of the scale. The harmonic feeling is slight, only about 12 per cent being harmonic in structure. The average interval is slightly smaller than in the Bear dance, yet the percentage of intervals larger than a major third is higher in the war songs than in the Bear dance, this percentage being 22 in the Bear dance and 25 in the war songs. This is due to the more frequent occurrence of the interval of a fifth in the war songs. The accompanying instrument was a hand drum. With three exceptions these songs begin on the unaccented portion of the measure, this being in contrast to the directness of beginning |