---

The Path on the Rainbow:

An Anthology of Songs and Chants from the Indians of North America

Edited by George W. Cronyn

New York: Boni and Liveright, Inc.

[1918]

---

This anthology of Native American poetry, song and ritual, presents texts from a wide range of culture areas. The translations are largely based on work by anthropologists, and all reflect genuine Native American lore. These poems come from a place in which magic, art and ritual are indistinguishable. They reflect an archaic consciousness which comes close to the Homeric or Indian epics in which gods walk the earth, magic is alive, and animals are just as human as you or me. To read these texts is to be absorbed back into that consciousness.–J.B. Hare

---

p. vii

CONTENTS

---

p. xi

EARLY MOON

The baby moon, a canoe, a silver papoose canoe, sails and sails in the Indian West.

A ring of silver foxes, a mist of silver foxes, sit and sit around the Indian moon.

One yellow star for a runner, and rows of blue stars for more runners, keep a line of watchers.

O foxes, baby moon, runners, you are the panel of memory fire-white writing tonight of the Red Man’s dreams.

Who squats, legs crossed, and arms folded, matching its look against the moon-face, the star-faces, of the West?

Who are the Mississippi Valley ghosts, of copper foreheads, riding wiry ponies in the night?—no bridles, love arms on the pony necks, riding in the night, a long old trail?

Why do they always come back when the silver foxes sit around the early moon, a silver papoose, in the Indian West?

---

p. xiii

INTRODUCTION

The poetic faculty is, of all man’s modes, the most responsive to natural environment, the most sensitive and the truest record of his reactions to its skyey influences, its floods, forests, morning colors. It is the first to register the rise of his spirits to the stimulus of new national ideals. If this were not so there would be no such thing as nationality in art, and it is only by establishing some continuity with the earliest instances of such reaction that we can be at all sure that American poetic genius has struck its native note. Therefore it becomes appropriate and important that this collection of American Indian verse should be brought to public notice at a time when the whole instinctive movement of the American people is for a deeper footing in their native soil. It is the certificate of our adoption, that the young genius of our time should strike all unconsciously on this ancient track to the High Places.

Poetic art in America, at the time it began to be overlaid by European culture, had reached a mark close to that of the Greeks at the beginning of the Homeric era. The lyric was well developed, the epic was nascent, and the drama was still in the Satyris stage of development, a rude dance ritual about an altar or a sacrificial fire. Neither poetry nor drama were yet divorced from singing, and all art was but half-born out of the Great Mystery. Magic was sung, and songs had magic power. Both were accompanied by appropriate bodily movement, so that an Indian will say indifferently, I cannot sing that dance, or I cannot dance that song. Words, melody and movement were as much mixed as the water of a river with its own ripples and its rate of flowing. Hum a few bars of a plainsman’s familiar song, and he will

p. xiv

say, puzzled, “It ought to be a war song,” but without the words he will scarcely identify it. Words may become obsolete so that the song is untranslatable, but so long as enough of it remains to hold together the primary emotional impulse out of which it sprang, the Indian finds it worthy to be sung. He is, indeed, of the opinion that “White man’s songs, they talk too much.”

This partly explains why most Indian songs are songs for occasions. The rest of the explanation lies in the fact that songs have magic power. Tiráwa, Wokonda, The Friend of the Soul of Man, is in everything; in the field we plant, the stone we grind with, the bear we kill. By singing, the soul of the singer is put in harmony with the essential Essence of Things. There are songs for every possible adventure of tribal life; songs for setting out on a journey, a song for the first sight of your destination, and a song to be sung by your wife for your safe return. Many of these songs occur detached from everything but the occasion from which they sprang, such as the women’s grinding song, measured to the plump, plump! of the mealing stone, or the Paddle Song which follows the swift rhythm of the stroke. Others, less descriptive and retaining always something of a sacred character, occur originally as numbers in the song sequences by which are celebrated the tribal Mysteries.

Back of every Indian ceremony lies a story, the high moments of which are caught up in song, while the burden of the narrative is carried by symbolic rite and dance. The unequal social development of contemporaneous tribes affords examples from every phase of structural development from the elemental dance punctuated by singing exclamations to the Mountain Chant of the Zuñi in which the weight of the story has broken down the verse variants into strong simple forms capable of being carried in a single memory. Halfway between them is the ritual sequence of the Midéwan.

The practical necessity of being preserved and handed on by word of mouth only, must be constantly borne in mind in considering the development of Indian verse forms.

It operated to keep the poetry tied to its twin-born melody,

p. xv

which assisted memory, and was constantly at work modifying the native tendency to adjust the rhythm to every changing movement of the story. Ancient Chippeway singers kept ideographic birch bark memoranda of their songs, and wampum belts commemorated the events that gave use to them, but the songs themselves came down from their ancient sources hundreds of years in the stream of human memory shaped by its limitations.

From the Zuñi Creation Cycle with its sustained narrative style to the Homeric Epic is but one poetic bound, the space between them, represented in old world literature by the Norse Sagas and the Kalevala, indicated but not filled, in America, by prose relations. It is probable that if we had anything like adequate records of the literature of vanished tribes, this pre-Homeric period would show notable examples of epic stuff. Nobody really knows how the Walam Olum or the Creek Migration Myths were recited. They embodied whole epochs of tribal history, to which the known literary remains were merely the mnemonic key, a tally of significant items. In every tribe are floating songs which appear to be fragments from a story sequence the key of which has been lost, and it is not unlikely that records like the Red Score would have owned complete, if detached, narratives of the historic events so slightly indicated, some of which may yet yield themselves to the patient researcher.

For the casual reader more interest attaches to the personal songs, the lullabies, love songs, most of all the man’s own song which he makes of his great moment. This is a peculiar personal possession. No one may sing it without his permission. He may bestow it on a friend, or bequeath it to the tribe on his death, but it is also possible that he may die without having sung it to anyone but his god.

On one occasion in the high Sierras I observed my Indian packer going apart at a certain hour each day to shuffle rhythmically with his feet and croon to himself. To my inquiry he said it was a song which he had made, to be sung by himself and his wife when they were apart from one another.

p. xvi

It had no words; it was just a song. Wherever they were they turned each in the direction he supposed the other to be, when the sun was a bow-shot above the edge of the heavens, and sang together. This is the sort of incident which gives the true value of song in aboriginal life. It is not the words which are potent, but the states of mind evoked by singing, states which the simple savage conceived as being supernally good for him. He evoked them therefore on all his most personal occasions. Poetry is the Path on the Rainbow by which the soul climbs; it lays hold on the Friend of the Soul of Man. Such exalted states are held to be protective and curative. Medicine men sing for their patients, and, in times of war, wives gather around the Chief’s woman and sing for the success of their warriors.

“Calling on Zeus by the names of Victory” as Euripides puts it.

It is this inherent power of poetry to raise the psychic plane above the accidents of being, which gives meaning to the custom of the Death Song. As he sees his moment approaching, the Indian throws himself, by some profound instinct of self-preservation, into the highest frame of mind attainable. When men in battle broke into the death song, they had committed themselves to the last desperate adventure. Dying of enfeebling sickness, their friends came and sang around them. One such I heard, the death song of a Yokut Song Maker. It was very simple:

 

 

[paragraph continues]What more than this have the schools taught us!

Of Indian meters there has been no competent study made. The whole problem of form is inextricably complicated with melody and movement. The necessity of making his verse conform to a dance, probably accounts for the liberal use of meaningless syllables. To our ear no specific forms seem indicated, yet that the Indians recognize a certain correspondence between

p. xvii

form and meaning is certain. They will readily classify songs of other tribes in unknown tongues into songs of love or war or magic. The genius of the tribal language is a determining factor. No clumsiness of translation can quite disguise the—from our point of view—superior singableness of Chippeway verse. In general, poetry of forest dwellers is more lyric than the songs of mountain and mesa. An inquiry which I once made into the psychology of the Indian sign language with a view to discovering a possible relation between it and Greek manual gesture as displayed in ancient graphic art, led to the conclusion that Indian rhythms arise rather in the centre of self-preservation than of self-consciousness. Which is only another way of saying that poetry is valued primarily by the aboriginal for the reaction it produces within himself rather than for any effect he is able to produce on others by means of it. This is true even of that class of songs which originates wholly in the desire to affect the fortunes or well being of others, songs of healing and magic formulae.

The first stage of Indian magic is the rise of the singer on his own song to a plane of power; only while he is in this plane is he able to bring the wish of his client to pass. It is a natural process of deterioration which leads to the song being thought of as having potency in itself.

Magic songs can generally be recognized by the form of affirmation in which they are cast, as in the Winnebago Love Song, which is not really a song of love, but a song to secure success in love,

or the Cherokee formula to insure the constancy of the beloved, and the Micmac vengeance song

p. xviii

Among the Navajo the magic effect is made certain by the fourfold repetition of the affirming phrase, four being a sacred number.

These are all items which have to be taken into account in interpreting American Indian poetry. It is in the very nature of primitive verse that it should require interpretation, even among the audiences for whom it is originally intended. For verse is to the Red singer but a shorthand note to his emotions, a sentence or two, a phrase out of the heart of the situation. It is the “inside song” alone which is important. Says the Medicine Man, explaining these matters, “You see Injun man singin’ an’ cryin’ while he sing. It ain’t what he singin’ make him cry; iss what the song make him think, thass what he cryin’ about.”

This inside song may be a fleeting instant of revelation, or a very long story… as if one should try in the Zuñi fashion to compress the whole Christian myth into one bitter cry,

 

 

 

 

Whole cycles of tribal or personal experience can lie behind some such simple but absolute phrasing. It is this hidden beauty for which the interpreter must dig deep into aboriginal life.

The Ghost Dance songs included in this collection are scarcely intelligible until the reader realizes that they are supposed to be the flashes of revelation brought from the dead in dreams, foretelling the approach of a spiritual revival.

Thus it came to the Cheyenne:

 

 

 

 

p. xix

To the Piaute also

 

 

and then

 

 

[paragraph continues]For to the Piaute from his flat Reservation on Walker River, the faint young green of the cottonwoods is the first sign of that new growth which follows after seasonal storms. Any adequate rendering of these songs would have to convey in native figures all this sense of immanent world-overturning and spiritual reëstablishment in the Oneness of God and the Brotherhood of man.

 

 

[paragraph continues]Thus interpreted they would rank with the prophetic utterances of the herdsman of Tekoa. It is quite possible, indeed, that in time all these ghostly songs would have been detached from their obscure authors and ascribed to the Messiah of the Ghost Dance, who would have been reckoned among the major prophets.

For such illuminating gleams that Indian poetry can throw on the genesis of inspired literature, its study would be worthwhile, even if without the renewal of our native stock of poetic forms and figures.

It is probable that the best Indian poetry has been lost to us in the stamping out of superior tribes.

This would be particularly the case in the south, where

p. xx

social development had reached a stage which only the pueblos and the Five Nations of western New York approached.

Miss Convers has shown us in the fragments of Iroquois ritual something of what might still be recovered from the remnants of that race, but this single example from the forgotten tribe of Tenasa, on the shore of the Missi-sippu seems to me to overleap all time and space and touch the hidden source of Greek inspiration. It is a marriage song, the faithful translation of an unliterary explorer, Greek in its mode, and in a certain tender irony of mood, but with touches to which only a full knowledge of Indian thought can give their full value, for all of which I venture to give it the isolation of its native quality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. xxi

[paragraph continues]The single line which identifies the song of Tiakens as intrinsically American is that one which inquires:

Didst thou understand her signs when she danced to thee? embodying as it does a very widespread aboriginal belief that in the dance and song, more than in any other medium, a maiden revealed the physical capacity and the power of sustained emotion which fitted her for marriage. Since when, and with what unhappy results, have we forgotten that creative emotion is a qualification for marriage! We do shallowly indeed when we dismiss the dance and song as mere millinery of courtship. They are the speech of the spirit identifying itself with cosmic forces. I do not know whether or not the Tenasa had the custom known on the Pacific Coast as the Dance of Marriageable Maidens, but I know that if you cut deeply into any Indian poem it yields that profound and palpitant humanism without which no literary art can endure.

Failure to realize the living background of Indian art has led to singular misinterpretation, in a class of songs common to every tribe, and almost invariably translated as love songs by the novice. These are the songs of the Mystics, Songs of Seeking. They record the unavailing search of the soul for the Absolute, for touch of that Great Mystery which is the object of the Indian’s profoundest aspiration. Two such songs may be found in Frederick Burton’s collection of Ojibway music, done into rather sentimental love ditties, the “Lake’s Sheen” and the “Birch Bark Canoe,” though their character as religious songs was so plainly marked that Mr. Burton himself commented on the singularity of Indian sweethearts forever getting themselves lost and requiring to be sought. It is well to remember before attempting the interpretation of an Indian love song, that the great Mystics have always appropriated the intimate language of the heart for the soul’s quest. As will be seen from the examples which Mr. Cronyn has included in his collection, the work of interpreting our treasure of Indian verse has been but lightly begun. While some of these, notably Miss Corbin’s “Across the River” leave nothing to be desired of the spirit, form and content

p. xxii

of the original, many others have had frankly to sacrifice one of them.

In my own interpretations I have been feeling rather for a full expression of Indian thought, than for lyrical quality.

And in any case, mine is not a singing gift. All Indian verse is either sung or chanted, but the difficulty of fitting Indian rhythms to European music is only surpassed by the difficulty of getting Indian music arranged in European notation.

The long divided Muses of poetry, music and dance must come together again for the absolute rendering. Enough cannot be said in praise of the work of Miss Fletcher, Natalie Curtis, Frank Cushing and Washington Mathews, to mention no others, for the clarity and sincerity of their literal translations. The interpreter’s work is all before him. I know of no task so salutory to the poet who would, first of all, put himself in touch with the resident genius of his own land.

MARY AUSTIN

---

p. 1 p. 2 p. 3

SONGS FROM THE EASTERN WOODLANDS

THE PARTED LOVERS

ABANAKI

I

THE MAN SINGS

 

 

THE WOMAN SINGS

 

 

II

THE GIRL DESERTED BY HER JEALOUS COMPANIONS SINGS

 

 

p. 4

 

 

III

HER LOVER SEES HER IN A DREAM AND, GOING TO SEARCH FOR HER, SINGS

 

 

p. 5

 

VENGEANCE SONG

MICMAC

 

p. 6

IROQUOIS RITUAL OF FIRE AND DARKNESS

The members of the Ho-no-tci-no-ga Society assemble. Now the Medicine Doctor or Shaman casts the sacred tobacco on the medicine-blaze, and in a low voice he chants:

 

 

p. 7

The lights are extinguished, leaving the assembly in total darkness. The Watcher of the Medicine uncovers the bundles, exposing it to the air, and as he does so a faint luminous cloud hovers over the table and disappears. Now the Chanter gives the signal and the members sing:

THE CHANT OF DARKNESS

 

 

Now the chiefs take their rattles, shaking them softly as the Chanter sings and members of the clan give the whip-poor-will cry.

THE CHANT OF INVITATION TO THE WHIP-POOR-WILL TOTEM

 

 

p. 8

 

 

Cries announce that the Wolf and his mate have entered the room.

 

 

Now Buck and Doe, with cries, enter. The song continues:

 

 

The Bear and his mate have come and the song goes on:

 

 

p. 9

 

 

The Hawk and its mate are announced. Then rites symbolizing the dangers of the forest tangles and swampy horrors are performed. According to the legend Eagle must dismiss the meeting. His coming, which is imitated on the small flute, announces the day. As the dawn-light penetrates the ceremonial place the last chorus is chanted of

THE EAGLE

 

 

The singing ends and the matrons bring in food and distribute it to all.

---

p. 10

FIRE-FLY SONG

OJIBWA

CALLING-ONE’S-OWN

OJIBWA

 

 

p. 11

 

OJIBWA WAR SONGS

I

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

p. 12

LOVE-SONG

WINNEBAGO

Whomsoe’er look I upon
He becomes love-crazed;
Whomsoe’er speak I unto,
He becomes love-crazed;
Whomsoe’er whisper I to,
He becomes love-crazed;
All men who love women,
Them I rule, them I rule,
My friend;
Whom I touch, whom I touch,
He becomes love-crazed.

HOLY SONG

WINNEBAGO

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 13

 

SACRED MIDÉ SONGS

OJIBWA

 

 

 

SONGS OF THE CHIPPEWA

HEALING SONG

 

 

LOVE-CHARM

 

 

p. 14

I AM WALKING

 

 

THEY THINK ME UNWORTHY

 

 

THE SOUND IS FADING AWAY

 

 

DOCTOR’S SONG

 

 

SONG OF THE TREES

 

 

p. 15

SONG OF THE THUNDERS

 

 

THE APPROACH OF THE STORM

 

 

I AM AFRAID OF THE OWL

 

 

I AM AS BRAVE AS OTHER MEN

Men who are brave and heroic
as you esteem them to be
Like them
I also
consider myself to be.

p. 16

MY MUSIC REACHES TO THE SKY

 

 

FAREWELL TO THE WARRIORS

 

 

SONG OF THE MAN WHO WAS TO BE HUNG

 

 

FRIENDLY SONG

I

 

 

II

 

 

GAMING SONG

 

 

p. 17

WAR SONGS

At Co’goben’s
village
they are weeping
the men

At Co’goben’s
village
they are wailing
the women.

I feel no fear
when the Great River man
death
speaks of.

THE MAN WHO STAYED HOME

 

 

ARROW SONG

Scarlet
is its head

SONG OF THE BUFFALO

Strike ye
our land
with curved horns

p. 18

SONG OF THE MINISINOWUCK

 

 

DRUM SONG

 

 

SONG OF WOMAN-OF-THE-RED-SKY, WHO WENT WITH HER HUSBAND, SINGING INTO BATTLE

 

 

DEATH SONG OF NAMEBINES

 

 

THE SIOUX WOMEN GATHER UP THEIR WOUNDED

 

 

p. 19

THEY ARE PLAYING A GAME

 

 

SCALP SONG

 

 

SONG OF REJOICING

 

 

DEATH SONG

 

 

SONG OF THE BUTTERFLY

 

 

p. 20

MAPLE SUGAR

 

 

A SONG OF SPRING

 

 

CARRIED AROUND THE SKY

 

 

THE SKY WILL RESOUND

 

 

AN OVERHANGING CLOUD

 

 

HEAPS OF CLOUDS

 

 

p. 21

THE NOISE OF THE VILLAGE

 

 

MIDÉ BURIAL SONG

 

 

LOVE SONGS

MY LOVE HAS DEPARTED

I

 

 

II

 

 

THE GENEROUS ONE

 

 

p. 22

 

 

RECOVERY

 

 

LOVE-HURT

 

 

GLAD-PARTING

 

 

INVITATION

 

 

p. 23

 

 

YOU DESIRE VAINLY

 

 

HE IS GONE

 

 

SONG OF AN AMBITIOUS MOTHER

 

 

NONSENSE SONG OF THE GAME OF SILENCE

 

 

p. 24

 

 

WORK STEADILY

 

 

I HAVE FOUND MY LOVER

 

 

MIDÉ SONGS

THESE REPRESENT THE EXPRESSION OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS

I

 

 

p. 25

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

 

V

 

 

VI

 

 

VII

 

 

p. 26

VIII

 

 

IX

 

 

X

My Midé brother
is searched
In his heart is found
that which I seek to remove
a white shell.

XI

 

 

XII

 

MEMORIAL ODE

Chief John Buck, hereditary Keeper of the Wampum, made and sung his ode in 1884 on the occasion of the removal of the bones of Chief Red Jacket from their original burying place to Forest

p. 27

Lawn Cemetery. The Great League is the League of the five Iroquois nations in Western New York.

CHANT

 

 

 

 

REFRAIN

 

p. 28 p. 29 p. 30 p. 31

SONGS FROM THE SOUTHEAST

FRAGMENT FROM THE WALLUM-OLUM OR CHRONICLE OF THE LENI-LENÂPÉ *

DELAWARE

After the rushing waters had subsided
The Lenâpé of the Turtle were close together,
In hollow houses, living together there.
It freezes where they abode:
It snows where they abode:
It storms where they abode:
It is cold where they abode.
At this northern place they speak favorably
Of mild, cool lands
With many deer and buffaloes.
As they journeyed, some being strong,
Some being rich, they separated
Into house-builders and hunters:
The hunters showed themselves at the north:
The hunters showed themselves at the east:
The hunters showed themselves at the south:
The hunters showed themselves at the west.
In that ancient country, in that northern country,
In that Turtle country
The best of Lenâpé were the Turtle-men.
All the cabin fires of that land were disquieted
And all said, “Let us go.”

 

p. 32

To the Snake land, to the east, they went
Going away, earnestly grieving.
Split asunder, weak, trembling, their land burned
They went, torn and broken, to Snake Island.
Those from the north being free, without care
Went forth from the land of snow in different directions.
The fathers of the Bald Eagle and the White Wolf remain
Along the sea, rich in fish and strength.
Floating up stream in their canoes
Our fathers were rich, they were in the light
When they were at those islands.
Head Beaver and Big Bird said:
“Let us go to Snake Island,” they said.
All say they will go along
To destroy all the land.
Those of the north agreed,
Those of the east agreed,
Over the sea, the frozen sea,
They went to enjoy it.
On the wonderful slippery water,
On the stone-hard water all went,
On the great tidal sea, the muscle-bearing sea.
Ten thousand at night,
All in one night,
To the Snake Island, to the east, at night,
They walk and walk, all of them.
The men from the north, the east, the south:
The Eagle clan, the Beaver clan, the Wolf clan,
The best men, the rich men, the head men,
Those with wives, those with daughters, those with dogs.
They all come, they tarry at the land of the spruce-pines:
Those from the west come without hesitation,
Esteeming highly their old home at the Turtle land.
There was no rain and no corn
So they moved further seaward.
At the place of caves, in the Buffalo land,
They at last had food on a pleasant plain.

---

Footnotes

31:* This famous fragment, the only written (pictograph) historical record extant among the Eastern tribes, is included as an example of the Saga element in Indian literature.

---

p. 33

SACRED FORMULAS OF THE CHEROKEES

I

CONCERNING LIVING HUMANITY

LOVE CHARM

Hû! Listen! In Alahí yi you repose, O Terrible Woman,
O you have drawn near to hearken.
There in Elahiyi you are at rest, a White Woman. *
No one, is ever lonely when with you.
You are most beautiful.
Instantly and at once you have rendered me a white man.
No one is ever lonely when with me.
Now you have made the path white for me.
It shall never be dreary.
Now you have put me into it.
It shall never become blue.
You have brought down to me from above the white road.
There in mid-earth you have placed me.
I shall stand erect upon the earth.
No one is ever lonely when with me.
I am very handsome.
You have put me into the white house.
I shall be in it as it moves about and no one with me shall ever be lonely.
Verily, I shall never become blue.
Instantly you have caused it to be so with me.

And now there in Elahiyi you have rendered the woman blue.
Now you have made the path blue for her.
Let her be completely veiled in loneliness.
Put her into the blue road.
And now bring her down.

 

p. 34

Place her standing upon the earth.
Where her feet are now and wherever she may go, let loneliness leave its mark upon her.
Let her be marked out for loneliness where she stands.

Ha! I belong to the Wolf clan, that one alone which was allotted into for you.
No one is ever lonely with me.
I am handsome.
Let her put her soul in the very center of my soul, never to turn away.
Grant that, in the midst of men she shall never think of them.
I belong to the one clan alone which was allotted for you when the seven clans were established.

Where other men live it is lonely.
They are very loathsome.
The common polecat has made them so like himself that they are fit only for his company.
They have become mere refuse.
They are very loathsome.
The common opossum has made them so like himself that they are fit only to be with him.
They are very loathsome.
Even the crow has made them so like himself that they are fit only for his company.
They are very loathsome.
The miserable rain-crow has made them so like himself that they are fit only for his company.

The seven clans all alike make one feel very lonely in their company.
They are not even good looking.
They go about clothed with mere refuse.
They even go about covered with dung.
But I—I was ordained to be a white man.

p. 35

I stand with my face toward the Sun Land.
No one is ever lonely with me.
I am very handsome.
I shall certainly never become blue.
I am covered by the everlasting white house wherever I go.
No one is ever lonely with me.
Your soul has come into the center of my soul, never to turn away.
I, Gatigwan asti—I take your soul.
Sge!

II

TO INSURE CONSTANCY

Listen! O, now you have drawn near to harken, O, Ancient One.
This woman’s soul has come to rest at the edge of your body.
You are never to let go your hold upon it.
It is ordained that you shall do just as you are requested to do.
Let her never think upon any other place.
Her soul has faded within her.
She is bound by the black threads.

III

Listen! “Ha! Now the souls have met, never to part,” you have said, O Ancient One above.
O Black Spider, you have brought down from on high.
You have let down your web.
She is of the Deer clan; her name is Ayâsta.
Her soul you have wrapped up in your web.
Listen! Ha! But now you have covered her with loneliness.

Her eyes have faded.
Whither can her soul escape?
Let her be sorrowing as she goes along, and not for one night alone.

p. 36

Let her become an aimless wanderer, whose trail may never be followed.
O Black Spider, may you hold her soul in your web so that it shall never get through the meshes.
What is the name of the soul?
They two have come together.
It is mine!

Listen! Ha! And now you have harkened,
O Ancient Red.
Your grandchildren have come to the edge of your body.
You hold them yet more firmly in your grasp, never to let go your hold.
O Ancient One, we have become as one.
The woman has put her soul into our hands.
We shall never let it go!
Yu!

IV

TO DESTROY LIFE

Listen! Now I have come to step over your soul
You are of the Wolf clan.
Your name is A’yû’nini.
Your spittle I have put at rest under the earth.
I have come to cover you over with the black rock.
I have come to cover you over with the black cloth.
I have come to cover you over with the black slabs, never to reappear.
Toward the black coffin of the upland in the Darkening Land your paths shall stretch out.
So shall it be for you.
The clay of the upland has come to cover you.
Instantly the black clay has lodged there where it is at rest at the black houses in the Darkening Land.
With the black coffin and with the black slabs I have come to cover you.

p. 37

Now your soul has faded away.
It has become blue.
When darkness comes your spirit shall grow less and dwindle away, never to reappear.
Listen!

V

THOSE ABOUT TO BE SLAIN

Ha yi! Yû! Listen!
Now instantly we have lifted up the red war club.
Quickly his soul shall be without motion.
There under the earth, where the black war clubs shall be moving about like ball sticks in the game, there his soul shall be, never to reappear.
We cause it to be so.
He shall never go and lift up the war club.
We cause it to be so.
There under the earth the black war club and the black fog have come together as one for their covering.
The black fog shall never be lifted from them.
We cause it to be so.

---

Footnotes

33:* White—happy; blue—despondent. “To make lonely” or to be “lonely” was, to the Cherokees, the depth of degradation.

---

p. 38 p. 39 p. 40 p. 41

SONGS FROM THE GREAT PLAINS

HUNTING SONGS

DAKOTA

I

 

 

II

 

THE FASHIONING OF THE CHILDREN

OSAGE

CHANT OF THE RED EAGLE CLAN

The First of the Race
Was saying, “Ho, younger brother! the children have no bodies.
“We shall seek bodies for our children.
“Ho, younger brother! you shall attend to it.”
They reached one upper world and stood.
There they were not human beings.

p. 42

“Ho, younger brother! the children have no bodies,” he was saying.
“We must seek bodies for our children.”
They reached the second upper world and stood.
There they were not human beings.
“Ho, younger brother! the children have no bodies,” he was saying.
“We must seek bodies for our children.”
They reached the third upper world and stood.
There they were not human beings.
“Ho, younger brother! the children have no bodies,” he was saying.
“We must seek bodies for our children.”
They reached the fourth upper world and stood.
There they became human beings.
Still, the children were without (human) bodies.
“We must continue to seek bodies for our children.”
They returned to the third upper world and stood.
The children were really without bodies.
“Ho, younger brother! the children have no bodies,” he was saying.
“We must continue to seek bodies for our children.”
They returned to the second upper world and stood.
The children did not find bodies for themselves.
“Ho, younger brother! the children have no bodies,” he was saying.
“We must make an examination awhile longer.”
They returned to the first upper world and stood.
They came to red oak and were standing on it.
On a very fine day they came hither and stood.
Kaxe-wahü-sa (the Black Bear), who was then moving,
Came directly to them and stood.
“Ho, elder brother!” (said the Black Bear.)
“You shall continue to burn my feet for me.”
“Ho, Kaxe-wahü-sa!” was he (the Tsicu) saying.
Kaxe-wahü-sa went to the star Watse-tuka.
“Ho, grandfather!” he was saying.

p. 43

“The children have no bodies.”
Watse-tuka replied, “Can I give the children bodies?
“I have an everlasting road in which I must keep.
“I am not the only mysterious one;
“You shall attend to it awhile longer.”
Then Kaxe-wahü-sa went to the star Watse-mika.
“Ho, grandmother!” he said;
“The children have no bodies.”
She replied, “Can I give bodies to the children?
“I have an everlasting road in which I must keep.
“I am not the only mysterious one!
“You shall attend to it awhile longer.”
Then he went to the mysterious one of day.
“Ho, grandfather!” said he;
“The children have no bodies.”
Said he, “Can I give the children bodies?
“I have an everlasting road in which I must keep.
“I am not the only mysterious one;
“You shall attend to it awhile longer.”
Then he went to the mysterious one of night.
“Ho, grandfather!” said he;
“The children have no bodies, grandfather!”
The Moon replied, “Can I give bodies to the children?
“I have an everlasting road in which I must keep.
“I am not the only mysterious one;
“You shall attend to it awhile longer.”
Then he went to the Pleiades, saying,
“Ho, grandfathers!
“The children have no bodies.”
One of these replied, “Can I give bodies to the children!
“I have an everlasting road in which I must keep.
“I am not the only mysterious one;
“You shall attend to it awhile longer.”
Then he went to the constellation called Three Deer.
“Ho, grandfather,” said he;
“The children have no bodies.”
The latter replied, “Can I give the children bodies?

p. 44

“I have an everlasting road in which I must keep.
“I am not the only mysterious one;
“You shall attend to it awhile longer.”
Then he went to the Morning Star, saying,
“Ho, grandfather!
“The children have no bodies.”
The star replied, “Can I give bodies to the children?
“I have an everlasting road in which I must keep.
“I am not the only mysterious one;
“You shall attend to it awhile longer.”
Then he went to the Small Star, saying,
“Ho, grandfather!
“The children have no bodies.”
The star replied, “Can I give bodies to the children?
“I have an everlasting road in which I must keep.
‘I am not the only mysterious one;
“You shall attend to it awhile longer.”
The female Red Bird, who had been moving, was sitting on her nest.
To her he came, saying,
“Ho, grandmother!
“The children have no bodies.”
She replied, “I can cause your children to have (human) bodies from my own.
“My left wing shall be a left arm for the children.
“My right wing shall be a right arm for them.
“My head shall be a head for them.
“My mouth shall be a mouth for them.
“My forehead shall be a forehead for them.
“My neck shall be a neck for them.
“My throat shall be a throat for them.
“My chest shall be a chest for them.
“My thighs shall be thighs for them.
“My knees shall be knees for them.
“My heels shall be their heels.
“My toes shall be their toes.
“My claws shall be their toenails.

p. 45

“You shall live forever without destruction.
“Your children shall live as human beings.
“The speech of children I will bestow on your children.”

THE CHILD IS INTRODUCED TO THE COSMOS AT BIRTH

OMAHA

Ho! Ye Sun, Moon, Stars, all ye that move in the heavens,
I bid you hear me!
Into your midst has come a new life.
Consent ye, I implore!
Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the first hill!
Ho! Ye Winds, Clouds, Rain, Mist, all ye that move in the air,
I bid you hear me!
Into your midst has come a new life.
Consent ye, I implore!
Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the second hill!
Ho! Ye Hills, Valleys, Rivers, Lakes, Trees, Grasses, all ye of the earth,
I bid you hear me!
Into your midst has come a new life.
Consent ye, I implore!
Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the third hill!
Ho! Ye Birds, great and small, that fly in the air,
Ho! Ye Animals, great and small, that dwell in the forest,
Ho! Ye insects that creep among the grasses and burrow in the ground—
I bid you hear me!
Into your midst has come a new life.
Consent ye, I implore!

p. 46

Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the fourth hill!
Ho! All ye of the heavens, all ye of the air, all ye of the earth:
I bid you all to hear me!
Into your midst has come a new life.
Consent ye, consent ye all, I implore!
Make its path smooth—then shall it travel beyond the four hills!

---

RITUAL CHANT AT THE PREPARATION OF THE SWEAT LODGE FOR THE SICK

OMAHA

The Stone, with the curative powers of its heat, becomes a symbol of permanency and strength.

Ho! Aged One, eçka, *
At a time when there were gathered together seven persons,
You sat in the seventh place, it is said,
And of the Seven you alone possessed knowledge of all things,
Aged One, eçka.
When in their longing for protection and guidance,
The people sought in their minds for a way,
They beheld you sitting with assured permanency and endurance
In the center where converged the paths,
There, exposed to the violence of the four winds, you sat,
Possessed with power to receive supplications,
Aged One, eçka.
Where is his mouth, by which there may be utterance of speech?
Where is his heart, to which there may come knowledge and understanding?

 

p. 47

Where are his feet, whereby he may move from place to place?
We question in wonder,
Yet verily it is said you alone have power to receive supplications,
Aged One, eçka.
I have desired to go yet farther in the path of life with my little ones,
Without pain, without sickness,
Beyond the second, third, and fourth period of life’s pathway,
Aged One, eçka.
O hear! This is my prayer,
Although uttered in words poorly put together,
Aged One, eçka.

RITUAL CHANT FOR THE SICK

OMAHA

He! Aged One, eçka
Thou Rock, eçka
Aged One, eçka
He! I have taught these little ones
They obey, eçka
Aged One, eçka
He!
He! Unmoved from time without end, verily
Thou sittest, eçka
In the midst of the various paths of the coming winds
In the midst of the winds thou sittest, eçka
Aged One, eçka
He! The small grasses grow about thee, eçka
Thou sittest as though making of them thy dwelling place, eçka
He! Verily thou sittest covered with the droppings of birds, eçka
Thy head decked with the downy feathers of the birds, eçka

p. 48

Aged One, eçka
Thou who standest next in power, eçka
He! thou water, eçka.
Water that hast been flowing
From time unknown, eçka
He! Of you the little ones have taken
Though thy mysteries remain unrevealed
These little ones crave thy touch, eçka
He! Thou that standest as one dwelling place, eçka
Even as one dwelling place, eçka
Ye great animals, eçka
He! Who make for us the covering, eçka
These little ones, thou hast said, let their thoughts reverently dwell on me, eçka
He! Thou tent frame, eçka
Thou standest with bent back o’er us
With stooping shoulders, bending over us
Verily, thou standest
Thus my little ones shall speak of me, thou hast said
Brushing back the hair from thy forehead, eçka
The hair of thy head
The grass that grows about thee
Thy hairs are whitened, eçka
The hairs that grow upon thy head, eçka
O, the paths that the little ones shall take, eçka
Whichever way they may flee from danger, eçka
They shall escape. Their shoulders shall be bent with age as they walk
As they walk on the well-beaten path
Shading their brows now and again with their hands
As they walk in their old age, eçka
That of thy strength they shall partake, eçka
Therefore thy little ones desire to walk closely by thy side, eçka
Venerable One, eçka.

p. 49

RITUAL OF THE COSMIC FORCES

OMAHA

Toward the coming of the sun
There the people of every kind gathered,
And great animals of every kind.
Verily all gathered together, as well as people.
Insects also of every description,
Verily all gathered there together,
By what means or manner we know not.
Verily, one alone of all these was the greatest,
Inspiring to all minds,
The great white rock,
Standing and reaching as high as the heavens, enwrapped in mist,
Verily as high as the heavens.
Thus my little ones shall speak of me,
As long as they shall travel in life’s path, thus they shall speak of me.
Such was the words, it has been said.
Then next in rank
Thou, male of the crane, stoodst with thy long beak
And thy neck, none like to it in length,
There with thy beak didst thou strike the earth.

This shall be the legend
Of the people of yore, the red people,
Thus my little ones shall speak of me.
Then next in rank stood the male gray wolf, whose cry,
Though uttered without effort, verily made the earth to tremble,
Even the stable earth to tremble.
Such shall be the legend of the people.
Then next in rank stood Hega, the buzzard, with his red neck.
Calmly he stood, his great wings spread, letting the heat of the sun straighten his feathers.
Slowly he flapped his wings,

p. 50

Then floated away, as though without effort,
Thus displaying a power (a gift of Wakonda) often to be spoken of by the old men in their teachings.

SONG OF SCORN

OMAHA

Ena! The one I wish to marry has gone to war.
Ena! The one I hate has not gone forth but remains here.

THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION

In 1892 the last serious Indian outbreak occurred. This was occasioned by the government’s efforts to suppress the practices of a new religion which, during the two years preceding, had spread over a large part of, the west, among the Indian tribes from the Plains to the Coast, and from the Columbia to the Rio Grande. The Prophet of this new cult claimed to be the Messiah, and professed to exercise divine powers. He instituted certain dances, which his followers, in a vain attempt to overthrow the world-order magically, perverted into frenzied rites, wherein entranced, they saw visions and spoke with the dead. The Messiah concept is an ancient one in Indian mythology, antedating all Christian influence, and so desperate had become the straits of the Vanishing Race that these doctrines received wide acceptance. At length the government intervened and brought the strange worship to an end.

Mr. James Mooney investigated this interesting phenomenon and actually discovered the Seer, who proved to be an inoffensive visionary dwelling in a remote valley of the Southwest. This young man’s life and theories (a full-blood, apparently untouched by Christian influence), curiously resembled those of Christ, and like the latter, he preached the doctrines of Nonresistance and the Brotherhood of Man. In this case our government played the part of Rome.

p. 51

These songs were sung during the dancing, and express in the image of the Whirlwind, a mystic and exalted contemplation of the approaching Great Change. Unessential repetitions have been omitted for brevity’s sake.

---

Footnotes

46:* Eçka—I implore.

---

SONGS OF THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION

ARAPAHO

DISILLUSION

I

 

 

ECSTASY

II

 

 

LABORS OF THE SPIRIT

III

 

 

p. 52

WONDER

IV

 

 

THE WHIRLWIND (POWER OF CHANGE) SPEAKS

V

 

 

VISION

VI

 

 

SPIRIT-JOY

VII

 

 

REVELATION

VIII

 

 

p. 53

TRAVAIL, OF SPIRIT

IX

 

 

INVOCATION

X

 

 

THE MESSIAH SPEAKS

CHEYENNE

 

 

REINCARNATION

COMANCHE

 

 

SONGS OF LIFE RETURNING

PAIUTE

I

 

 

p. 54

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

 

V

 

 

VI

 

 

VII

 

 

SONG OF THE PATH OF SOULS

VIII

 

 

p. 55

CREATION

SIOUX

I

 

 

LAMENT

II

 

 

COURIER CHANT

III

 

 

THE MILLENIUM

IV

 

 

p. 56

JUDGMENT

KIOWA

 

 

VISITATION

II

 

 

THE SECRET OF HUMANITY

III

 

 

THE GOD-MAN

IV

 

 

p. 57

THE SPIRIT HUNTERS

V

 

 

MYSTIC

VI

 

 

EXHORTATION

CADDO

 

p. 58 p. 59 p. 60 p. 61

SONGS FROM THE SOUTHWEST

VIRACOCHA

ANCIENT INCA

 

WAR SONGS

ZUNI

 

 

p. 62

 

 

 

PRAYER FOR RAIN

SIA

 

 

p. 63

 

 

RAIN SONG OF THE GIANT SOCIETY

SIA

 

 

p. 64

 

 

INVOCATION TO THE U’WANNAMI

SIA

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 65

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

 

p. 66

V

 

MAGPIE SONG

NAVAJO

 

SONGS IN THE GARDEN OF THE HOUSE GOD

NAVAJO

I

 

 

p. 67

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

---

THE MOUNTAIN CHANT OF THE NAVAJO

CHARACTER OF THE SONGS

Some songs are self-explanatory or readily understood, but the greater number cannot be comprehended without a full knowledge of the mythology and of the symbolism to which they refer; they merely hint at mythic conceptions. Many contain archaic expressions, for which the shaman can assign a meaning,

p. 68

but whose etymology cannot now be learned; and some embody obsolete words whose meaning is lost even to the priesthood. There are many vocables known to be meaningless and recited merely to fill out the rhythm or to give a dignified length to the song. For the same reasons a meaningless syllable. is often added or a significant syllable duplicated. Other poetical licenses are taken, such as the omission of a syllable, the change of accent, the substitution of one vowel for another. The most familiar words are often distorted beyond recognition. For these various reasons the task of noting and translating these songs is one of considerable difficulty. In order to simplify the meaning of certain chants repetitive phrases are set as refrains.

PRELUDE

INVOCATION TO DSILYI N’EYANI

 

 

p. 69

FIRST SONG OF THE THUNDER

 

 

II

TWELFTH SONG OF THE THUNDER

 

 

III

FIRST SONG OF THE EXPLODING STICK

 

 

p. 70

 

 

IV

LAST SONG OF THE EXPLODING STICK

 

 

V

FIRST DAYLIGHT SONG

 

 

VI

LAST DAYLIGHT SONG

 

 

p. 71

 

---

THE TOWN CRIER CALLS AT DAWN TO ANNOUNCE THE FEAST

PUEBLO

All people awake, open your eyes, arise,
Become children of light, vigorous, active, sprightly.
Hasten clouds from the four world quarters;
Come snow in plenty, that water may be abundant when summer comes;
Come ice, cover the fields, that the planting may yield abundance,
Let all hearts be glad!
The knowing ones will assemble in four days;
They will encircle the village dancing and singing songs…
That moisture may come in abundance.

---

p. 82

SONG OF THE HORSE

NAVAJO

How joyous his neigh!
Lo, the Turquoise Horse of Johano-ai,
How joyous his neigh,
There on precious hides outspread standeth he;
How joyous his neigh,
There on tips of fair fresh flowers feedeth he;
How joyous his neigh,
There of mingled waters holy drinketh he;
How joyous his neigh,
There he spurneth dust of glittering grains;
How joyous his neigh,
There in mist of sacred pollen hidden, all hidden he;
How joyous his neigh,
There his offspring many grow and thrive for evermore;
How joyous his neigh!

---

SONG OF THE BLUE-CORN DANCE

ZUÑI

 

p. 83

PIMA RITUAL SONG CYCLE

THE FLOOD

I

ELDER BROTHER, SON OF EARTH

 

 

II

EARTH DOCTOR PROPHESIED THE FLOOD, CAUSED BY ELDER BROTHER:

 

 

III

ELDER BROTHER FROM HIS OLLA SONG:

 

 

p. 84

AS HE WAS BORNE ALONG BY THE FLOOD HE SANG:

 

 

EMERGING SAFELY FROM THE OLLA HE SANG:

 

 

IV

HOW SOUTH DOCTOR FORETOLD THE DESTRUCTION OF EARTH AND ALL ITS CREATURES:

 

 

V

EARTH DOCTOR BEHELD THE RISING WATERS:

 

 

p. 85

 

 

VI

SOUTH DOCTOR RAISED THE MOUNTAINS:

 

 

AND MARKED THE LIMITS OF THE FLOOD:

 

 

BUT HE COULD DO NO MORE:

Powerless! Powerless!
Powerless is my magic crystal!
Powerless! Powerless!
I shall become as stone.

Earth Doctor escaped destruction by shutting himself in his reed staff
Elder Brother was saved in his olla.
After the waters rolled back
Elder Brother was first to appear and so became ruler of the world.
Now Earth Doctor created all things anew.

p. 86

CREATION SONGS BY EARTH DOCTOR

I

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

 

V

 

 

p. 87

VI

 

 

WARS OF THE PEOPLE

I

AFTER A TIME ELDER BROTHER WENT WITH THE PEOPLE TO SLAY HÂ-ÂK, THE FEMALE MONSTER

 

 

p. 88

II

WHEN THEY HAD SLAIN HÂ-ÂK THEY WENT AGAINST THEIR ENEMIES, SINGING:

 

 

III

THUS SANG THE PEOPLE AS THEY CAME UP OUT OF THE EARTH, WHITHER THEY FLED DURING THE FLOOD:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 89

 

 

IV

WHEN THEY ATTACKED THE MEN OF MORNING-BLUE THEY SANG:

 

 

V

AT GILA CROSSING ELDER BROTHER SANG:

 

 

VI

THEY WENT AGAINST THE ENEMY NEAR TEMPE, SINGING:

 

 

p. 90

VII

WHEN HE CLIMBED THE CLIFF TO ATTACK EAGLE, ELDER BROTHER SANG:

 

 

VIII

THERE HE CONCEALED HIMSELF AS A FLY, SINGING:

 

 

IX

WHEN EAGLE RETURNED HIS WIFE PUT HIM TO SLEEP WITH THIS SONG:

 

 

p. 91

X

THEN THE ELDER BROTHER SLEW THE EAGLE AND RETURNING IN TRIUMPH, ELDER BROTHER CELEBRATED HIS PROWESS:

 

 

HUNTING SONGS

I

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 92

II

 

 

 

 

BASKET-BEATING SONGS

I

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 93

 

 

II

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 94

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 95

SONG OF THE RACE

 

 

 

 

SONG OF STRANGENESS

 

 

 

 

 

 

NAME-SONG

 

 

p. 96

 

 

PUBERTY SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SONG OF THE MAGIC OF DAWN

 

 

p. 97

 

 

 

 

FETISH SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

LIGHTNING SONG

 

See the destructive lightning
Going to kill the distant tree.
It is going, my younger brother,
To split the distant tree.

 

p. 98

 

 

 

 

 

 

HORNED TOAD SONG

 

 

 

 

GILA MONSTER SONG

 

 

p. 99

 

 

 

 

BLACK LIZARD SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 100

BLACK-TAILED DEER SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RATTLESNAKE SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 101

 

 

 

 

BEAVER SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

OWL SONG

 

 

 

 

p. 102

 

 

 

 

 

 

QUAIL SONG

 

 

MOUSE SONG

 

 

 

 

p. 103

BEAR SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

ROADRUNNER SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 104

 

 

 

 

DOG SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

HARE SONG

 

 

 

 

p. 105

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GOPHER SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 106

COYOTE SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

BADGER SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 107

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUTTERFLY SONG

 

 

 

 

p. 108

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DEMON SONG

 

 

p. 109

 

 

 

 

 

 

RAIN SONGS

I

Hi-ihiya naiho-o! Let us begin our song,
Let us begin, rejoicing. Hitciya yahina-a.
Let us begin our song, let us begin rejoicing,
Singing of the large corn. Hitciya yahina-a.
Singing of the small corn. Hitciya yahina-a.

II

Hi-ihiya naiho-o! The darkness of evening
Falls as we sing before the sacred âmina.
About us on all sides corn tassels are waving.
Hitciya yahina! The white light of day dawn
Yet finds us singing, while corn tassels are waving.
Hitciya yahina-a! The darkness of evening
Falls as we sing before the sacred âmina.
About us on all sides corn tassels are waving.
Hitciya yahina! The white light of day dawn
Yet finds us singing, while the squash leaves are waving.

p. 110

Hi-iya naiho-o! The earth is rumbling
From the beating of our basket drums.
The earth is rumbling from the beating
Of our basket drums, everywhere humming.
Earth is rumbling, everywhere raining.

III

Hi-ihiya naiho-o! Pluck out the feathers
From the wing of the Eagle and turn them
Toward the east where lie the large clouds.
Hitciya yahina-a! Pluck out the soft down
From the breast of the Eagle and turn it
Toward the west where sail the small clouds.
Hitciya yahina! Beneath the abode
Of the rain gods it is thundering;
Large corn is there. Hitciya yahina!
Beneath the abode of the rain gods
It is raining; small corn is there.

WAR SONGS

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 111

 

 

III

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IV

 

 

 

 

V

 

 

p. 112

 

 

 

 

CORN SONG

Hi-ilo-o ya-a-a! He who sees everything
Sees two stalks of corn standing;
He’s my younger brother. Hi-ilo-o ya-a-a!
He who sees everything, sees the two squashes;
He’s my younger brother. Hi-ilo-o ya-a-a!
On the summit of Ta-atûkah sees the corn standing;
He’s my younger brother. Hi-ilo-o ya-a-a!
On the summit of Ta-atûkah sees the squash standing;
He’s my younger brother. Hi-ilo-o woiha!

Hi-ilo-o ya-a-a! Over Ta-atûkam
Rise the clouds with their loud thundering.
Hi-ilo-o ya-a-a! Over Ta-atûkam
Rise the clouds with their loud raining.
Hi-ilo-o ya-a-a! The Bluebird is holding
In his talons the clouds that are thundering.
Hi-ilo-o ya-a-a! Yellowbird is holding
In his talons the clouds that are raining.

Hi-ilo-o ya-a-a! See Elder Brother
Breathe out the winds that over Ta-atûkam
Drive the clouds with their loud thundering.
Hi-ilo-o ya-a-a! See Elder Brother
Breathe out the winds that over Ta-atûkam
The welcome storm clouds are suspending.
Hi-ilo-o ya-a-a! In the great rain clouds
Let me sing my song of rejoicing.

p. 113

MAGICIAN SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NAVITCO SONG

 

 

p. 114

 

 

 

 

WIND SONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 115

 

 

SONG OF THE VISION-MAKER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 116

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 117

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE

“Tell me,” I asked an Indian song-poet who had just taught me a song of his composing, “when you made your song, which came first, words or music?”

The Indian stared at me in puzzled surprise: “I made a song,” he answered, “a song is words and music—all comes together.”

Because Indian poems are therefore really songs, conceived as a very part of the iteration and intonation of music, I have endeavored in my translations to hold in minutest detail to the original rhythm and accent, believing that only thus can the Indian verse sing, through an alien tongue, in its true form.

NATALIE CURTIS
Santa Fe, New Mexico, September, 1917

---

p. 118

SONG OF THE EARTH

NAVAJO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 119

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 120

HUNTING SONG

NAVAJO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 121

SONG OF THE RAIN CHANT

NAVAJO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SONG FROM THE MOUNTAIN CHANT

NAVAJO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p. 123

CORN-GRINDING SONG

ZUÑI

I

 

 

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

p. 124

 

KOROSTA KATZINA SONG

HOPI

 

p. 125

HE-HEA KATZINA SONG

HOPI

 

 

 

 

p. 126 p. 127 p. 128

---

p. 129

SONGS FROM CALIFORNIA

SONGS OF SPIRITS

WINTU

I

LIGHTNING

 

 

II

OLELBIS (THE CREATOR)

 

 

III

HAU (RED FOX)

 

 

IV

POLAR STAR

 

p. 130

SONGS OF KUMASTAMXO

YUMA

I

WHEN THE SPIRIT-WIND APPROACHED

 

 

II

WHEN HE BURNT THE UNCLEAN HOUSE

 

 

III

WHEN HE MADE THE RIVER

 

 

 

p. 131

 

 

IV

AFTER HE HAD FINISHED HIS CREATING

 

 

V

WHEN HE BECAME THE EAGLE

 

 

p. 132 p. 133 p. 134 p. 135

---

Footnotes

130:* Where a house had been burnt seeds were scattered, for the birds to devour.

---

SONGS FROM THE NORTHWEST COAST

PRAYERS OF THE TSIMSHIAN TO NEXNÓA

 

 

FOR FAIR WEATHER

 

 

FOR CALM WEATHER

 

 

 

---

Footnotes

135:* “pull up your foot” means “stop the rain”; “sweep off your face” means “take away the clouds.”

---

p. 136

THREE SONGS FROM THE HAIDA:
QUEEN CHARLOTTE’S ISLAND, B.C.

LOVE SONG

 

 

THE BEAR’S SONG

 

 

SONG FOR FINE WEATHER

 

 

p. 137

 

BEAR SONG

HAIDA

 

 

p. 138

 

HAIDA CRADLE SONGS

I

 

 

 

p. 139

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

 

p. 140

V

 

 

VI

 

 

VII

 

 

VIII

 

 

p. 141

IX

 

 

X

 

 

XI

 

 

XII

 

 

p. 142

XIII

 

 

XIV

 

 

XV

 

 

XVI

 

 

XVII

 

 

XVIII

 

 

p. 143

XIX

 

 

XX

 

 

XXI

 

 

---

Footnotes

138:* Chiefs’ children used to be placed high up on blankets in the center of trading canoes so that they could look about. Here the baby is reminded of what she used to do in a former existence.

---

BILQULA DEATH SONG

 

SONG OF QAQATCGUK

TLINGIT

 

 

p. 144

SONG OF WOMAN’S PREMONITION

 

 

SONG OF RAVEN

 

 

CRADLE SONG FOR A GIRL

 

 

CRADLE SONG

 

 

p. 145

SONG OF LITTLE-LAKE-UP-ABOVE

(When his people expected others to come with food to give them a feast)

 

 

SONG OF SORROW

(By a woman whose brothers were drowned and their bodies not recovered)

 

 

COMPOSED BY SMALL-LAKE-UNDERNEATH

(About a drifting log found full of nails, out of which a house was built. Sung when a feast is about to be given for a dead man)

 

 

p. 146

KAGWANTAN SONG FOR THE FEAST

 

 

SUNG BY THE WOLF FAMILIES

 

 

AT A GREAT FEAST

 

 

BY NAQUALI

 

 

p. 147

SONG OF FOR-A-TOWN SPIRIT

 

 

BY NIGOT

 

 

BY TSAKAK

 

 

BY ONE OF THE LENÉDI

 

 

p. 148

AN ANGRY SONG COMPOSED BY SEXDAGWET

 

 

BY DEAD-SLAVE

(About a woman named Poor-orphan, who was a very poor girl, but afterward became the richest woman in Wrangell)

 

p. 149

BY A SHAMAN OF THE KÁGWANTAN NAMED KAGANK

 

 

BY UNDER-A-BLANKET

(About the son of Luknaxádi, whose brother was killed in compensation for the killing of her brother)

 

 

BY MAN-THAT-IS-NOT-ALL-RIGHT

 

 

BY AMONG-THE-BRANT

 

 

p. 150

 

 

BY OTHER-WATER

 

 

BY JOINED-TOGETHER

(When all his friends went down the rapids at Gonaxó and were drowned)

 

 

BY HERE-IS-A-FEATHER

 

 

p. 151

BY MAN-FOR-HIMSELF

 

 

BY CGWATC

 

 

MOURNING SONG OF SAKWET

 

 

 

 

PEACE-SONG AFTER A GREAT WAR

 

 

p. 152

SONG OF A HUMMING-BIRD DEER

 

 

BY LQENA

(When he was the only one of his people saved and his enemies wanted to make peace with him. He danced as a deer, singing this song and at the end of it cut in two the man standing next to him)

 

 

BY QAUCTE

 

 

p. 153

LOVE SONG OF A TAGISH WOMAN

 

 

LOVE-SONG OF SIQUET, THE DANCER

 

 

BY RAVEN-SKIN

 

 

MOURNING-SONG OF THE KÁGWANTAN

 

p. 154

SPELL SONG

KWAKIUTL

 

CHINOOK SONGS

SONGS OF THE MAN

I

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

p. 155

SONGS OF THE WOMAN

I

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

 

V

 

 

p. 156 p. 157 p. 158 p. 159

---

SONGS FROM THE FAR NORTH

SONGS FOR THE GREAT FEAST TO THE DEAD

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 160

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

p. 161

ESKIMO SONGS

OXAITOQ’S SONG

 

 

SUMMER SONG

 

 

p. 162

 

SEDNOR AND THE FULMAR

AN ESKIMO BALLAD

 

 

p. 163

 

 

p. 164

 

 

p. 165 p. 166 p. 167

---

INTERPRETATIONS

SUMMER DAWN

TEM-EYOS-KYI

 

 

p. 168

 

 

p. 169

 

 

p. 170

 

SONG OF THE SEARCH

 

 

p. 171

 

SONG OF WHIP-PLAITING

 

 

p. 172

 

SONG OF THE YOUNG MOTHER

 

 

p. 173

 

 

p. 174

 

 

p. 175

 

SONG OF BASKET-WEAVING

 

 

 

p. 176

 

 

---

Footnotes

175:* Kulasgh, Cedar tree, considered the source of life by the British Columbian Coast tribes, as it supplies all their necessities, even food in fish famine.

---

THE CHANGE-SONG

 

 

p. 177

 

 

 

p. 178

SONG OF THE FULL CATCH

Here’s good wind, here’s sweet wind,
Here’s good wind and my woman calls me!
Straight she stands there by the pine-tree,
Faithful waits she by the cedar,
She will smile and reach her hands
When she sees my thousand salmon!
Here’s good wind and my woman calls me.

Here’s clear water, here’s swift water,
Here’s bright water and my woman waits me!
She will call me from the sea’s mouth—
Sweet her pine-bed when the morning
Lights my canoe and the river ends!
Here’s good wind, here’s swift water,
Strong as love when my woman calls me!

---

SPRING TO THE EARTH-WITCH

PAI-IYA TO SWI-YA KWENEWESALS

 

 

p. 179

 

 

p. 180

 

CHIEF CAPILANO GREETS HIS NAMESAKE AT DAWN

 

 

p. 181

 

 

p. 182

 

THE WILD WOMAN’S LULLABY

 

 

p. 183

 

INDIAN LOVER’S HYMN

 

 

p. 184

 

THE SONG OF THE HILLS

FROM THE YOKUT

BEING THE SONG OF A MAN AND A WOMAN WHO MIGHT HAVE LOVED

 

 

 

p. 185

 

 

---

Footnotes

184:* Kunaë: Supreme One.

---

NEITHER SPIRIT NOR BIRD

SHOSHONE LOVE SONG

 

 

p. 186

 

RAYER TO THE MOUNTAIN SPIRIT

FROM THE NAVAJO

 

 

p. 187

 

ONG FOR THE PASSING OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN

FROM THE PAIUTE

 

p. 188

SONG OF A PASSIONATE LOVER

FROM THE YOKUT

 

THE HEART’S FRIEND

SHOSHONE LOVE SONG

 

 

p. 189

 

A SONG IN TIME OF DEPRESSION

FROM THE PAIUTE

 

p. 190

ALONG THE SOUTH STAR TRAIL: TRIBAL SONGS FROM THE SOUTHWEST

THE TOM-TOM

 

 

p. 191

 

 

p. 192

 

 

p. 193

 

SA-A NARAÏ

 

 

p. 194

Sa-a Naraï
The Tribe moves on—count thou the fires.
      Sa-a Naraï
Beads, a few in falling rain; grains in desert sand;
      Sa-a Naraï
The door of night swings wide—it will not close.
      Sa-a Naraï
Still room for beads, dying hills for land;
     Sa-a Naraï
The door is open—the Soul Trail glows.
      Sa-a Naraï
I counted my sheep but not the bones;
      Sa-a Naraï
A woman vows and goes her way;
      Sa-a Naraï
Dust-wedded wealth—the desert owns—
      Sa-a Naraï
Tomorrow smiles, while sad is yesterday.
      Sa-a Naraï
Feast on wit and beauty—pendants of bone—
      Sa-a Naraï
The eye-strings tie two souls today.
      Sa-a Naraï
Fill the earthen bowl—fill jar of stone—
      Sa-a Naraï
Youth blooms fresh—spring has not gone;
      Sa-a Naraï
Winter gathers, gathers fruit of spring shower;
      Sa-a Naraï
The frost-chain shakes—a soul moves on.
      Sa-a Naraï
I saw a cripple, I saw a thief.
      Sa-a Naraï
Go, hoe your corn with shoulder-blade of deer.
      Sa-a Naraï
Where blows a wind, there stirs a leaf;

p. 195

 

 

p. 196

ON THE WAR-PATH

 

EARTH-MOTHER

 

 

p. 197

 

 

p. 198

 

FEAST OF WOLVES

 

 

p. 199

 

LONE-DOG UNTO THE DELAWARES

 

 

p. 200

 

LISTENING *

 

BUFFALO DANCE

 

 

 

p. 201

 

 

---

Footnotes

200:* Miss Frances Densmore’s literal translations from the Chippewa furnished the keynotes of this and the following five songs.       A. C. H.

---

WHERE THE FIGHT WAS

 

THE WIND

 

p. 202

COURTSHIP

 

PARTING

 

THE LOST LAGOON

 

 

p. 203

 

THE SONG MY PADDLE SINGS

 

 

p. 204

 

p. 205

PLEM-SALIA-KWI

AUTUMN DAWN

 

 

p. 206

 

 

p. 207

 

 

p. 208 p. 209 p. 210

---

SONGS FROM THE HAKO: A PAWNEE CEREMONY

RENDERED IN THE RHYTHMS OF THE ORIGINALS, BY ALICE FLETCHER
WITH INTERPRETATIONS BY TAHIRUSSAWICHI, A PAWNEE

p. 211

PREFATORY NOTE

The position of Tahirussawichi in the Pawnee tribe is that of a man worthy of respect—one versed in a knowledge of serious things, whose life has been devoted to the acquisition and maintenance of certain sacred rites. He is esteemed as a man of truth— one who has the favor of Tiráwa. He possesses a knowledge of curative roots, and often attends the sick, using herbs as medicine. He is the keeper of certain old and sacred objects, and leads in their attendant ceremonies. His great care in observing all the details of the intricate ceremony of the Hako is well known in the tribe, and much good fortune is believed to follow his leadership in this ceremony. His title is Kúrahus. This term is applied to a man of years who has been instructed in the meaning and use of sacred objects as well as their ceremonies. The word is sometimes employed as a synonym for a venerable man, one who commands respect, but throughout this paper it is used in its official sense—the leader of the ceremony.

NATURE OF THE CEREMONY

The teachings of the public ceremony were general in character. They emphasized, on the one hand, man’s dependence on the supernatural for all the gifts of life, and on the other hand, his dependence on the family tie for the gifts of peace and happiness. The specific teachings were reserved for the Son. These began in the ritual to the Dawn (tenth ritual) on the morning of the second and third days, which prefigured the secret ceremonies

p. 212

of the fifth morning, when the bond .of the family relation was extended beyond blood kinship through the symbolic rites which recognized the common source of life in Tiráwa atius.

Looking over the entire ceremony, it is interesting to note how older rites have had their share in the development of the Hako, and how the trend of thought among the native seers has borne them toward a conception of the brotherhood of man, a conception recognized as the noblest known to the human family.

This impressive ritual-drama may be compared to a medieval Miracle Play, and has exercised an influence no less profound on the tribes which have performed it. The chief persons in the drama are, the Father, the Son, the Children, and attendant Deities (the associates and representatives of Tiráwa atius, the Master of Life). Mother Corn, Kawas, the Eagle, the Morning Star, the Dawn, the Day and Father Sun. The Father is chosen from the tribe which presents the great spectacle; the Son is selected by the priests from another tribe by the curious psychic process described in the Second Ritual. Unusual blessings are supposed to accrue to those who take the leading parts.

p. 213

THE HAKO: A PAWNEE CEREMONY

FIRST RITUAL

INVOKING THE POWERS

EXPLANATION BY THE KÚRAHUS, OR CHIEF PRIEST

At the creation of the world it was arranged that there should be lesser powers. Tiráwa atius, the mighty power, could not come near to man, could not be seen or felt by him, therefore lesser powers were permitted. They were to mediate between man and Tiráwa. The first song mentions some of these lesser powers in the order in which they come near to man, in the order of their creation.

INVOCATION TO THE GREAT SPIRITS

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 214

III

 

 

IV

 

 

PREPARING THE FEATHERED STEM

Blue is the color of the sky, the dwelling place of Tirawahut, that great circle of the powers which watch over man. As the man paints the stick blue we sing. We ask as we sing that life be given to this symbol of the dwelling place of Tiráwa. We paint the groove red because the passageway is red through which man’s breath comes and goes to give him life. The sun, too, is red, and the groove represents the straight path whereon the sun shines, the path which man must travel if he would live in peace and prosper. The teachings of this ceremony make a straight path along which if a man walks he will receive help from the powers.

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 215

 

 

In this ceremony the brown eagle is called Kawas. This eagle has been made holy by being sacrificed to Tiráwa. Its feathers are tied upon the stem that has been painted blue to represent the sky.

This stem was the first one painted and decorated, because it is female and the leader. It represents the night, the moon, the north, and stands for kindness and helpfulness. It will take care of the people. It is the mother.

Throughout the ceremony the Kúrahus carries this feathered stem.

SONG TO MOTHER CORN

Mother Corn knows all places and all that happens among men; therefore the corn which comes from her must lead, must direct us where to go.

I

 

 

p. 216

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

 

Mother Corn having reached the blue dome where dwells the great circle of powers, Tirawahut, and having gained what she went for, tawitshpa, authority to lead in the ceremony, she descends to earth by the four paths.

SECOND RITUAL

PREFIGURING THE JOURNEY TO THE SON

The spirit of Mother Corn leads our spirits in the search for the Son. We draw near, in the spirit, to the village where the Son

p. 217

dwells. The Son does not see us as we stand there; he is sleeping. We fix our minds upon Mother Corn and upon him; we think of the gifts we are to bring him when we come to him with the Hako, the gifts that the birds and the animals that attend these sacred objects will surely bestow upon him—long life, children, and plenty. Now the spirit of Mother Corn touches him. We fix our minds upon Mother Corn and upon the Son; if we are in earnest he will respond to her touch. He will not waken, he will not see her, but he will see in a dream that which her touch will bring to him, one of the birds that attend the Hako, for all the spirits of those birds are with Mother Corn and they do her bidding, and he may hear the bird call to him. Then, when he awakens, he will remember his dream, and as he thinks upon it, he will know that he has been chosen to be a Son, and that all the good things that come with the ceremony which will make him a Son are now promised to him.

CHANT OF THE MYSTIC JOURNEY

I

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

p. 218

IV

 

 

V

 

 

VI

 

 

VII

 

 

VIII

 

 

p. 219

THIRD RITUAL

SENDING THE MESSENGERS

The four messengers are selected informally by the Father from among his near relatives. They are generally young men, lithe and strong of limb, and able to make a long journey quickly. The distance to be traveled varies from a few miles to a hundred or more, and as they must carry all their provisions, it becomes necessary for them to get over the ground as rapidly as possible.

The formal appointment of these messengers takes place in the lodge of the Father, in the presence of the sacred objects spread at ceremonial rest.

When the messengers arrive at the lodge of the Son, he sends for his kindred and consults with them. Only a recent death in his family or some catastrophe which has deprived him of his property will be accepted as sufficient excuse for his not receiving the Hako party. If he accepts the tobacco he will bid the messengers return to the Father and say, “I am ready.” In either case he must make gifts to the messengers in recognition of the proffered honor.

THE FATHER’S MESSAGE TO THE SON

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 220

FOURTH RITUAL

VIVIFYING THE SACRED OBJECTS

On the morning of the day the journey is to begin the Kúrahus rises from his place in the lodge behind the Hako and goes outside. There he ties the sacred objects on the selected tent pole.

The rope of buffalo hair is used to tie these sacred objects to the pole, which is then set up at the entrance of the lodge. Here it stands where the wind of the dawn may breathe upon the Hako and the first rays of the sun strike the sacred objects and give them life.

SONG OF PRAISE TO MOTHER CORN

As we sing we think that Mother breathing forth life, who has come out of the past, has now started to lead us on the journey we are to take and to the fulfilment of our desire that children may be given us, that generations may not fail in the future, and that the tie may be made strong between the Father and the Son.

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 221

THE HAKO PARTY PRESENTED TO THE POWERS

INVOCATION TO TIRÁWA

This song is addressed to Tiráwa atius. He is the father of all and all things come from him. We pray in our hearts as we sing. We ask Tiráwa to watch over the Kúrahus, to guide his acts and to guard his words so that he may make no mistake and the ceremony may be complete. From the east the flashes of the eyes of Tiráwa come darting through the air upon us and upon the sacred objects.

 

 

INVOCATION TO THE GODS

The people are now looking toward the north, the moon, the night, the mother of the day.

We ask the powers of the north, they who can see the path of life, to lead us and make us able to walk, us and our children.

To all the powers of the east, west, south, and north we have sung and have presented ourselves. As we walked, we have traced upon the earth the figure of a man. This image that we have traced is from Tiráwa. It has gone around with us, and its feet are where we now stand; its feet are with our feet and will move with them as we now take four steps, bearing the sacred objects, in the presence of all the powers and begin our journey to the land of the Son.

I

 

 

p. 222

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

FIFTH RITUAL

MOTHER CORN ASSERTS AUTHORITY

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 223

 

 

[paragraph continues]Mother Corn, who led our spirits over the path we are now to travel, leads us again as we walk, in our bodies, over the land.

We speak of this path as devious, not merely because we must go over hills and through valleys and wind around gulches to reach the land of the Son, but because we are thinking of the way by which, through the Hako, we can make a man who is not of our blood a Son; a way which has come down to us from our far-away ancestors like a winding path.

CROSSING THE PRAIRIE

I

 

 

II

 

 

SONG OF OBEDIENCE

Mother Corn speaks to us and we are assured in our spirits. The next song is to enforce obedience to Mother Corn.

I

 

 

p. 224

II

 

 

SONGS AND CEREMONIES OF THE WAY

The journey we are taking is for a sacred purpose, and as we are led by the supernatural power in Mother Corn we must address with song every object we meet, because Tiráwa is in all things. Everything we come to as we travel can give us help, and send help by us to the Children.

Trees are among the lesser powers, and they are represented on the Hako which we carry, so when we see trees we must sing to them.

Trees grow along the banks of the streams; we can see them at a distance, like a long line, and we can see the river glistening in the sunlight in its length. We sing to the river, and when we come nearer and see the water and hear it rippling, then we sing to the water, the water that ripples as it runs.

SONG TO THE TREES AND STREAMS

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 225

III

 

 

SONG WHEN CROSSING THE STREAMS

I

 

 

II

 

 

SONG TO THE WIND

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 226

SONG TO THE MOUNTAINS

I

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

 

SONG TO THE MESA

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 227

III

 

 

IV

 

 

MOTHER CORN REASSERTS LEADERSHIP

THE SEARCH FOR THE CHILDREN

I

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

As we move on and enter the land of the Children we sing, in the second stanza, about their footprints, the marks of their moccasins where they have walked to and fro on the ground. We may not actually see these marks, but the song represents us as seeing them; Mother Corn has seen them, and she is leading us.

When the village of the Children is in sight the following

p. 228

song is sung. Mother Corn speaks in the first stanza and tells us she has come again to this place. Her spirit had been here before when she came seeking the Son. To-day we have arrived with her at this her destination, and we give thanks to Mother Corn.

SONG OF THE JOURNEY’S END

I

 

 

II

 

 

SIXTH RITUAL

THE SON’S MESSAGES RECEIVED

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 229

 

 

[paragraph continues]The pack containing the clothing provided for this representative of the Son is now opened. After the messenger has finished eating he is dressed in the new clothing.

We clothe him because that is an act which marks the care of a father for his child. The garments we put upon him are fine and embroidered; these fine and carefully made garments show that we have been thinking of him, that we regard him highly and wish to do him honor.

Just before we reach the village we halt and sing the next song.

SEEKING THE SON

I

 

 

II

 

 

SEVENTH RITUAL

THE CONSECRATION OF THE LODGE

When the Son has dispatched his messenger to the Hako party, he with a few of his near relatives, enters the lodge set apart for

p. 230

the ceremony, there to await the return of his messenger and the coming of the Fathers.

He seats himself at the south side of the lodge near the door. This is the humblest place, and he takes it to show that he is not seeking his own honor. By the choice of him as the Son a very high honor has been bestowed upon him, and his appreciation of this is shown by his taking the seat of the lowliest and not assuming prominence before the people.

The Kúrahus directs the chief of the Hako party to advance one step and to stand upon the threshold while the first stanza of the next song is sung.

TOUCHING AND CROSSING THE THRESHOLD

I

 

 

II

 

 

MOTHER CORN BREATHING LIFE IS NOW WALKING IN THE LODGE

I

 

 

p. 231

 

 

KAWAS HOVERS OVERHEAD IN THE LODGE

I

 

 

II

 

 

CLOTHING THE SON AND OFFERING THE SMOKE

The lodge having been made ready as a nest within which life might be given and made secure, the Father performs his first act of recognition and responsibility. He puts upon the Son the garments he has previously prepared for the purpose. When clad in the finely embroidered clothing, the Son is told to make the offering of smoke to Tiráwa atius, as a prayer for the consecration of the new-born relationship.

THE SON PRAYS TO THE GODS

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 232

SONG OF THE PRAYER SMOKE

I

 

 

II

 

 

EIGHTH RITUAL (FIRST DAY)

THE FATHERS FEED THE CHILDREN

Now the heralds summon the people to the lodge and they come, dressed in their best attire and bringing gifts.

IN PRAISE OF TIRÁWA

 

INVOCATION TO THE ALL-FATHER

When the Kúrahus begins to sing this song he must think what this ceremony is for and be mindful that all the powers that the heavens contain and all the powers that are felt over the earth are now coming near and bending over the Hako.

p. 233

All the powers that are in the heavens and all those that are upon the earth are derived from the mighty power, Tiráwa atius. He is the father of all things visible and invisible. He is the father of all the people, and perpetuates the life of the tribe through the gift of children. So we sing, your father, meaning the father of all people everywhere, the father of all things that we see and hear and feel.

 

 

SONGS FOR LAYING DOWN THE FEATHERED STEMS

FIRST SONG

The feathered stems represent the eagle; the holy place, where the stems are laid to rest, represents the eagle’s nest. A nest is made for the young; the making of a nest in the lodge of the Son by Kawas presages the fulfillment of the promise of children to the Son, as well as the establishment of a close bond, like that of father and son, between the members of two unrelated clans or tribes.

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 234

 

 

SECOND SONG

I

 

 

II

 

 

NINTH RITUAL (FIRST NIGHT)

THE VISIONS ARE INVOKED

When the sun has set and it is dark and the stars are shining, then the Children gather in the lodge. Some, as they come in, will advance to the holy place and there drop a stick; this means the gift of a pony. For every such gift the Kúrahus returns thanks to the giver.

After all are seated, wood is piled upon the fire, and when the flames leap high the Kúrahus rises, then his assistant and the chief rise and the Hako are taken up.

The singers carrying the drum follow the Hako bearers as they move slowly around the lodge, singing the following song.

p. 235

I

    Holy visions!
Hither come, we pray you, come unto us,
Bringing with you joy;
Come, oh, come to us, holy visions,
Bringing with you joy.

[paragraph continues]We sing about the visions which the birds on the feathered stems are to bring to the Children.

Visions come from above, they are sent by Tiráwa atius. The lesser powers come to us in visions. We receive help through the visions. All the promises which attend the Hako will be made good to us in this way.

Visions can come most readily at night; spirits travel better at that time. Now when we are met together we, the Fathers, call upon the visions to come to the Children.

II

 

 

[paragraph continues]The visions have heard the call of the spirits of the birds upon the feathered stems, joined to the call of our spirits, and they are descending by the east from their dwelling place above, and are coming toward the lodge.

We sing, “They are coming,” and the Children join in the song, as we pass around and wave the feathered stems.

III

 

 

p. 236

 

 

[paragraph continues]As we sing the visions touch and cross the threshold and then pass down the long passageway leading into the lodge. As we reach the west they have entered the lodge.

Kawas and all the birds have called these visions to bless the Children. The visions have heard, they have traveled far, they have reached the lodge, and now they have entered and are in the presence of the Children.

IV

 

 

V

 

 

[paragraph continues]The visions which attend the Hako are now touching the Children, touching them here and there and by their touch giving them dreams, which will bring them health, strength, happiness, and all good things.

VI

 

 

p. 237

[paragraph continues]As we sing, the visions are walking away; they have done what they came to do; they are now leaving the lodge, and when we reach the west the space they had filled is empty.

We pause and we think of the visions going away over the silent earth to ascend to their dwelling place.

VII

 

 

VIII

 

 

TENTH RITUAL

THE BIRTH OF DAWN

As the night draws to a close, the Kúrahus orders the server to lift the skins which hang at the outer and inner doors of the long passageway of the lodge, and to go outside and watch for the first glimmer of light.

At the first indication of a change, when the air begins to stir, the server comes in with the tidings, and we rise, take up the Hako, and stand at the west, behind the holy place; there, looking toward the east, we sing this song. We sing it slowly and with reverent feeling, for it speaks of the mysterious and powerful act of Tiráwa atius in the birth of Dawn.

p. 238

THE SUMMONS TO MOTHER CORN

I

 

 

[paragraph continues]We call to Mother Earth, who is represented by the ear of corn. She has been asleep and resting during the night. We ask her to awake, to move, to arise, for the signs of the dawn are seen in the east and the breath of the new life is here.

Mother Earth hears the call; she moves, she awakes, she arises, she feels the breath of the new-born Dawn. The leaves and the grass stir; all things move with the breath of the new day; everywhere life is renewed.

This is very mysterious; we are speaking of something very sacred, although it happens every day.

THE AWAKENING OF MOTHER CORN

II

 

 

[paragraph continues]The eagle soars where these powers dwell and can communicate with them. The new life of the new day is felt by these powers above as well as by Mother Earth below.

THE SUMMONS TO KAWAS, THE EAGLE

III

 

 

p. 239

THE AWAKENING OF KAWAS

IV

 

 

[paragraph continues]H’Kawas hears the call and awakes. Now all the powers above wake and stir, and all things below wake and stir; the breath of new life is everywhere. With the signs in the east has come this new life.

Kawas, the brown eagle, the messenger of the powers above, now stands within the lodge and speaks. The Kúrahus hears his voice as she tells him what the signs in the east mean.

She tells him that Tiráwa atius there moves upon Darkness, the Night, and causes her to bring forth the Dawn. It is the breath of the new-born Dawn, the child of Night and Tiráwa atius, which is felt by all the powers and all things above and below and which gives them new life for the new day.

V

 

 

VI

 

 

THE MORNING STAR AND THE NEW-BORN DAY

We sing this song slowly with reverent feeling, for we are singing of very sacred things.

p. 240

The Morning Star is like a man; he is painted red all over; that is the color of life. He is clad in leggins and a robe is wrapped about him. On his head is a soft downy eagle’s feather, painted red. This feather represents the soft, light cloud that is high in the heavens, and the red is the touch of a ray of the coming sun. The soft, downy feather is the symbol of breath and life.

The star comes from a great distance, too far away for us to see the place where it starts. At first we can hardly see it; we lose sight of it, it is so far off; then we see it again, for it is coming steadily toward us all the time. We watch it approach; it comes nearer and nearer; its light grows brighter and brighter.

INVOCATION TO THE MORNING STAR

I

 

 

II

 

 

INVOCATION TO DAWN

III

 

 

p. 241

IV

 

 

As we sing this song the Morning Star comes still nearer and now we see him standing there in the heavens, a strong man shining brighter and brighter. The soft plume in his hair moves with the breath of the new day, and the ray of the sun touches it with color. As he stands there so bright, he is bringing us strength and new life.

As we look upon him he grows less bright, he is receding, going back to his dwelling. place whence he came. We watch him vanishing, passing out of our sight. He has left with us the gift of life which Tiráwa atius sent him to bestow.

As we stand, looking through the long passageway of the lodge, watching and singing, we see the Dawn come nearer and nearer; its brightness fills the sky, the shadowy forms on the earth are becoming visible. As we watch, the Dawn, like the Morning Star, recedes. It is following the Star, going back to the place whence it came, to its birthplace.

The Day is close behind, advancing along the path of the Morning Star and, as we watch, the Dawn vanishes from our sight.

DAYLIGHT

We sing this song with loud voices, we are glad. We shout, “Daylight has come! Day is here!” The light is over the earth. As we look out through the door of the lodge we can see the trees, and all things stand out clearly in the light.

We call to the Children, we bid them awake and throw off the robes that covered their heads as they slept and let their eyes look out and behold the light of day, the day that has come, that is here.

p. 242

SONG OF THE JOY OF DAY

I

 

 

II

 

 

ELEVENTH RITUAL

CHANT TO THE SUN

On this, the second day of the ceremony, we remember our father the Sun. The sun comes directly from Tiráwa atius, and whoever is touched by the first rays of the sun in the morning receives new life and strength which have been brought straight from the power above. The first rays of the sun are like a young man, they have not yet spent their force or grown old, so, to be touched by them is to receive an accession of strength.

All the time I am singing this song I remember the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Corn; all these were made by Tiráwa atius, and I ask them to give us success and plenty; success in hunting and in war; plenty of food, of children, and of health. The Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Corn, are powerful.

p. 243

We speak of the sun as Father breathing forth life (h’Aars), causing the earth to bring forth, making all things to grow. We think of the sun, which comes direct from Tiráwa atius, the father of life, and his ray (hukawi) as the bearer of this life. (You have seen this ray as it comes through a little hole or crack.) While we sing, this ray enters the door of the lodge to bring strength and power to all within.

The first four verses of this chant are sung in the morning; they follow the movements of the ray. When the spot has reached the floor we stop singing and do not begin again until the afternoon, so that our song can accompany the ray as it leaves the lodge, touches the hills, and finally returns to the sun.

I

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

Now behold; nearer comes the ray of our father Sun; it reaches
now the floor and moves within the open space, walking
there, the lodge about.

[paragraph continues]Later, when the sun is sinking in the west, the land is in shadow, only on the top of the hills toward the east can the spot, the

p. 244

sign of the ray’s touch, be seen. Then we sing the stanza as we go around the lodge the third time.

The ray of Father Sun, who breathes forth life, is standing on the edge of the hills. We remember that in the morning it had stood on the edge of the opening in the roof of the lodge over the fireplace; now it stands on the edge of the hills that, like the walls of a lodge, inclose the land where the people dwell.

V

 

 

VI

 

 

VII

 

 

VIII

 

 

CHANT OF THE EAGLES

This song likens the bustle and stir of the Hako party as it comes into the village to the flapping of the wings of a flock of birds as they come to a place and alight. It refers also to the birds represented on the feathered stems—the eagle, the duck, the woodpecker, and the owl. The noise of the wings of these birds is what is meant, for they are moving with the Fathers toward the Children.

p. 245

THE WINGS OF THE MIGHTY

I

 

 

II

 

 

TWELFTH RITUAL (SECOND NIGHT)

THE RITES CAME BY A VISION

FIRST SONG

 

 

SECOND SONG

 

 

p. 246

 

 

THIRD SONG—TO THE PLEIADES

 

 

FOURTH SONG—OF KATASHA, THE DWELLING PLACE OF THE VISIONS

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 247

III

 

 

IV

 

 

V

 

 

VI

 

 

FIFTH SONG

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 248

 

 

SIXTH SONG

I

 

 

II

 

 

PART II

THE SACRED FEAST OF THE CORN TAKES PLACE

FIRST SONG—TO OUR FATHER SUN

 

 

SECOND SONG

 

 

p. 249

THIRD SONG—TO OUR MOTHER EARTH

I

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

 

FOURTEENTH RITUAL (THIRD NIGHT)

INVOKING THE VISIONS OF THE ANCIENTS

I

 

 

p. 250

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

 

V

 

 

VI

 

 

p. 251

VII

 

 

VIII

 

 

THE FLOCKING OF THE BIRDS

In the early spring the birds lay their eggs in their nests, in the summer they rear their young, in the fall all the young ones are grown, the nests are deserted and the birds fly in flocks over the country. One can hear the fluttering of a startled flock, the birds suddenly rise and their wings make a noise like distant thunder. Everywhere the flocks are flying. In the fall it seems as though new life were put into the people as well as into the birds; there is much activity in coming and going.

When the eggs are hatched and the young are grown, the birds flock; the promise of young has been fulfilled. In this song, which we sing toward the close of the ceremony, we are thinking of the fulfilling of the promise given by the Hako, that children will be granted to the people, so that they may be many and strong, and we sing that the great flocks are coming.

I

 

 

p. 252

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

 

V

 

 

VI

 

 

p. 253

FIFTEENTH RITUAL

SONGS FOR THE SIXTEEN CIRCUITS OF THE LODGE

The life of man depends upon the earth (h’Atira). Tiráwa atius works through it. The kernel is planted within Mother Earth as she brings forth the ear of corn, even as children are begotten and born of women.

FIRST SONG

I

 

 

II

 

 

SECOND SONG

I

 

 

II

 

 

THIRD SONG

I

 

 

p. 254

 

 

II

 

 

FOURTH SONG

I

 

 

II

 

 

FIFTH SONG

I

 

 

p. 255

II

 

 

SIXTH SONG

I

 

 

II

 

 

SIXTEENTH RITUAL

(FIFTH DAY, DAWN)

SEEKING THE CHILD

The child referred to is usually a little son or daughter of the Son, the man who has received the Hako party. Upon this little child we are to put the signs of the promises which Mother Corn and Kawas bring, the promise of children, of increase, of long life, of plenty. The signs of these promises are put upon this little child, but they are not merely for that particular child

p. 256

but for its generation, that the children already born may live, grow in strength, and in their turn increase so that the family and the tribe may continue.

FIRST SONG

 

 

SECOND SONG

I

 

 

II

 

 

SYMBOLIC INCEPTION

FIRST SONG

The ear of corn represents h’Uraru, Mother Earth who brings forth; the power which causes her to bring forth is from above, and the blue paint represents that power.

We hold the painted ear of corn toward the little child that the powers from above and from below may come near it.

 

 

p. 257

SIXTEENTH RITUAL—PART II

SECOND SONG

While we sing the third stanza, the Kúrahus touches the little child on the forehead with the ear of corn. The spirit of Mother Corn, with the power of Mother Earth, granted from above, has touched the child.

The touch means the promise of fruitfulness to the child and its generation.

I

 

 

II

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

 

p. 258

 

 

THIRD SONG

This song means that it is accomplished, that the child has been encompassed by the powers represented by the united stems. It is a promise of procreation.

I

 

 

II

 

 

ACTION SYMBOLIZING LIFE

The child, surrounded by the creative forces, is urged to move, to arise as the first song is sung.

The four steps taken by the child represent the progress of life.

FIRST SONG

 

 

SECOND SONG

 

 

p. 259

THIRD SONG

 

 

SEVENTEENTH RITUAL

TOUCHING THE CHILD

On the preceding night water was taken from a stream; this water is now put into a bowl. Every detail of this act is symbolic. The time when the water was obtained was night, the mother of day; running water symbolizes the continuity of life, one generation following another; the bowl which holds the water resembles in its shape the dome of the sky, the abode of the powers which bestow life.

The child is touched with the water upon the head and face, an invisible outline being made, which afterward is to become distinct. The first touching with water, one of the lesser powers, is to cleanse and give strength.

FIRST SONG

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 260

 

 

ANOINTING THE CHILD

As we sing this song the old man makes the same lines upon the face of the child as he made with the water and the brush of grass. This is in recognition that the life which has been sustained and nourished is now consecrated to Tiráwa atius, the Father above, who gives life to all things.

I

 

 

II

 

 

SECOND SONG

The grass of which the brush is made is gathered during a ceremony belonging to the Rain shrine. It represents Toharu, the living covering of Mother Earth. The power which is in Toharu gives food to man and the animals so that they can live and

p. 261

become strong and able to perform the duties of life. This power represented by the brush of grass is now standing before the little child.

While we sing this song the old man touches the forehead of the child with the brush of grass. The power of Toharu has reached the child, has come in contact with it to impart the strength that comes from food.

I

 

 

II

 

 

PAINTING THE CHILD

FIRST SONG

The paint symbolizes the red clouds of the dawn, the coming of the new day, the rising sun, the vigor of life. The power of the new day, the new life, is now standing before the child.

As we sing this song the old man touches the forehead with the red paint. The vigor of life, the power of the touch of the sun, is now on the child.

I

 

 

p. 262

 

 

II

 

 

SECOND SONG

Blue represents the sky, the place where Tiráwa atius dwells, and with this blue paint we are to make upon the child a picture of the face of Tiráwa atius. It is a mark of Tiráwa atius’ acceptance of the consecrated child and a sign of his presence. The symbol of the dwelling place of Tiráwa atius stands before the child.

I

 

 

II

 

 

p. 263

PUTTING ON THE SYMBOLS

FIRST SONG

The down represents the high, light clouds (cirrus) in the blue of the sky; they are near the abode of Tiráwa atius.

The down is taken from under the wings of the white eagle. The white eagle is the mate of the brown eagle, and the child is the child of Kawas, the brown eagle. The down grew close to the heart of the eagle and moved as the eagle breathed. It represents the breath and life of the white eagle, the father of the child.

While we sing this song the old man opens his hand and lets the down fall upon the hair. The soft, white clouds near the abode of Tiráwa atius have dropped and covered the head of the child.

I

 

 

II

 

 

[paragraph continues]We sing in the fifth stanza that it is accomplished, the head of the consecrated child now rests in the soft, white clouds which float near the dwelling place of Tiráwa atius.

p. 264

SECOND SONG

While we sing this song, the old man ties the downy feather on the child’s hair. Tiráwa atius is now with the little child as the double feather waves over its head.

I

 

 

II

 

 

[paragraph continues]Now we sing that all is accomplished. The child has been fully prepared, the sacred symbols put upon it, the powers from above have come, and Tiráwa atius breathes over it.

The child is now told to look into the bowl of water and behold its face. The running water symbolizes the passing on of generations, one following another. The little child looks on the water and sees its own likeness, as it will see that likeness in its children and children’s children. The face of Tiráwa atius is there also, giving promise that the life of the child shall go on, as the waters flow over the land.

p. 265

EIGHTEENTH RITUAL

FULFILLMENT PREFIGURED

MAKING THE NEST

The circle represents a nest, and is drawn by the toe because the eagle builds its nest with its claws. Although we are imitating the bird making its nest, there is another meaning to the action; we are thinking of Tiráwa making the world for the people to live in. If you go on a high hill and look around, you will see the sky touching the earth on every side, and within this circular inclosure the people live. So the circles we have made are not only nests, but they also represent the circle Tiráwa atius has made for the dwelling place of all the people. The circles also stand for the kinship group, the clan, and the tribe.

The down represents the light clouds near the dwelling place of Tiráwa—the dome of the sky over the dwelling place of the people—and it stands for the protection of Tiráwa.

SONG

 

 

SYMBOLIC FULFILMENT

The child represents the young generation, the continuation of life, and when it is put in the circle, it typifies the bird laying its eggs.

SONG

 

 

p. 266

THANK OFFERING

An offering of sweet smoke is made to Tiráwa; then all traces of the nest are obliterated, and the lodge is once more thrown open to the people.

NINETEENTH RITUAL

THE CALL TO THE CHILDREN

The purpose of the rite is recognized by the important place given to children in this part of the ceremony. The ponies presented to the Fathers are each led up by a little child; the acting out of a man’s war-like deeds is to honor his child, and the little child with the black covering upon its head and the picture of Tiráwa upon its face receives, with the chief, the gifts as they are presented.

In every instance the child is the tie between the two groups, the Fathers and Children.

FIRST SONG

 

 

SECOND SONG

 

 

p. 267

THIRD SONG

 

 

TWENTIETH RITUAL

BLESSING THE CHILD

When I sing this song I pray to Tiráwa to come down and touch with his breath the symbol of his face and all the other symbols on the little child. I pray with all my spirit that Tiráwa atius will let the child grow up and become strong and find favor in its life.

This is a very solemn act, because we believe that Tiráwa atius, although not seen by us, sends down his breath as we pray, calling on him to come.

As I sing this song here with you I can not help shedding tears. I have never sung it before except as I stood looking upon the little child and praying for it in my heart. There is no little child here, but you are here writing all these things down that they may not be lost and that our children may know what their fathers believed and practiced in this ceremony. So, as I sing, I am calling to Tiráwa atius to send down his breath upon you, to give you strength and long life. I am praying for you with all my spirit.

The purport of this song is hidden from the people, but this is what it means: All that I have been doing to you, little child, has been a prayer to call down the breath of Tiráwa atius to give you long life and strength and to teach you that you belong to him—that you are his child and not mine.

p. 268

SONG

 

 

INCIDENTAL RITUALS

I—COMFORTING THE CHILD

Long ago there lived a holy man who knew all the songs and the rites of this ceremony, and to him came a vision wherein he was taught how to bring comfort to a little child when, during the ceremony, it cried and could not be pacified. In this vision he was shown what he must do to bring comfort to the little child, and he heard the songs that he must sing. The songs which he heard have been handed down through many generations.

When during the ceremony a child cries and can not be comforted, the mother, or someone sent by her, can approach the Kúrahus who carries the brown-eagle stem and ask him to comfort and quiet the child. The Kúrahus must comply with this request, so he rises and stands before the holy place, takes up the feathered stem and sings this song, which tells the brown eagle, Kawas, that its baby is crying.

FIRST SONG

 

 

SECOND SONG

 

 

p. 269

 

 

THIRD SONG

I

 

 

II

 

 

II—CHANGING A MAN’S NAME

If any man of the Son’s party had achieved success in war, and his achievements had been acknowledged by the people, he could request the Son to have the ceremony of changing his name performed.

This dramatic poem is in a rhythmic form impossible to reproduce in English; neither is a literal translation adequate to convey its meaning, since a single word sometimes represents a complex action, to the understanding of which a knowledge of the customs and beliefs of the tribe is essential. The terseness of expression was also intended to close the meaning to the uninitiated, keeping it sacred from the common people. Although the form of the following rhythmic rendition could not be determined as heretofore by musical phrases, the English version contains nothing which is not in the original text explained and amplified by the Kúrahus.

The ritual is in three parts. The first gives a brief narration

p. 270

of the institution of the custom of changing the name in consequence of some new achievement. The second shows how the man was enabled to accomplish this act. It began with his lonely vigil and fast, when he cried to the powers for help. The scene then shifts to the circle of the lesser powers, who, in council, deliberate on the petition which makes its way to them and gains their consent. Then the Winds summon the messengers, and these, gathering at the lesser powers’ command, are sent to earth to the man crying in lonely places, to grant his desire. This part closes with a few vivid words which set forth that only by the favor and help of the powers had the man been able to do the deed. The third deals with the man’s names, the one to be discarded and the one now to be assumed.

 

 

p. 271

 

 

p. 272

 

 

p. 273

 

 

CONCLUSION

LAST WORDS OF TAHIRUSSAWICHI

I have done what has never been done before. I have given you all the songs of this ceremony and explained them to you. I never thought that I, of all my people, should be the one to give this ancient ceremony to be preserved, and I wonder over it as I sit here.

I think over my long life with its many experiences; of the

p. 274

great number of Pawnees who have been with me in war, nearly all of whom have been killed in battle. I have been severely wounded many times—see this scar over my eye. I was with those who went to the Rocky Mountains to the Cheyennes, when so many soldiers were slain that their dead bodies lying there looked like a great blue blanket spread over the ground. When I think of all the people of my own tribe who have died during my lifetime and then of those in other tribes that have fallen by our hands, they are so many they make a vast cover over Mother Earth. I once walked with these prostrate forms. I did not fall but I passed on, wounded sometimes but not to death, until I am here to-day doing this thing, singing these sacred songs and telling you of these ancient rites of my people. It must be that I have been preserved for this purpose, otherwise I should be lying back there among the dead.

---