Contribution to Passamaquoddy Folk-Lore by J. Walter Fewkes
page 36 of 43 (83%)
page 36 of 43 (83%)
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to the music on the second, which differs somewhat from the first.
Then follows the third and fourth lines, which are sung to the third staff, and repeated with slight variation from the fourth. [Music illustration: T'w[=a] too boo hen ee too boo ho bla tel ey wees ee lu Hoi kay yu kar, hen-o yah ha, kay e yu kar hen o yar-hah.] The question of whether the Indians originally had characters to designate tones has been discussed by Theodor Baker ("Ueber die Musik der Nord Amerikanischen Wilden"). Although the Micmacs seemed to have had an elaborate system of hieroglyphics[33] to designate sounds, neither they nor their immediate neighbors, according to Vetromile, had characters to designate tones. The songs were probably committed to memory, and possibly on that account were often somewhat modified. [Footnote 33: Pictographic writing, which is so well known among the Micmacs, was also practised by the Passamaquoddies. The sign of the Passamaquoddies is a canoe with two Indians in it and a porpoise. This sign appears on rocks in certain places. The design for the present flag of this tribe is of late conception, and shows the Christian influence.] The cylinder with Passamaquoddy words and the English equivalents has the following records, which I have written down as nearly as I could from the phonograph, and verified by repeating them from my spelling to the Indians. With two exceptions, the Indians, were able to understand the word meant, and to give me an English equivalent |
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