PART TWO
CEREMONIAL SINGING

Chapter Five
Rituals to Repair the World

The creation myth tells of a large cloud appearing to the east over TakimiLdiñ. This was known to be pestilence. Yimantuwiñyai advised that a dance be held. After each dance and song they saw that the cloud had gone back a little. After two periods of five days it had completely disappeared. They then went to Miskut and danced the Jumping Dance at a place selected by Yimantuwiñyai. The formula describes this first dance and says after each dance, "That sickness is afraid, it goes back."
Origin of the Jumping Dance as described in Goddard's "Life and Culture of the Hupa" (1903-1904:82)

This chapter and the next describe group rituals and the musical styles which occur in each of them. Several examples have been transcribed, despite the inherent limitations of Western notation for this purpose, and the general approach is descriptive and contextual.^[1] A more abstract analysis is provided in chapter 10, which examines various elements of the musical tradition from a comparative and historical perspective.

I regret to say that it did not seem appropriate at this time to produce a recording as a companion to this book. Generally speaking, it is prohibited to make recordings or to take photographs at any of these sacred events, though I have often seen local Indian persons doing so at the Brush Dance. The songs transcribed here were collected in recording sessions or interview situations and were not recorded in actual context. Nevertheless, I feel sure that some members of the community would be offended were the recordings made public, and I wish to honor their feelings on the subject.

World Renewal

Kroeber and Gifford coined the expression "World Renewal" (1949) to encompass a number of separate rituals through which the Indians seek to maintain or regenerate the surrounding environment and its resources. In precontact times, the rituals not only served to assure continuing abundance of salmon, acorns, and other natural foodstuffs but were also intended to drive away sickness and to prevent natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, or floods.

As practiced between 1900 and 1942, this religious system in-eluded the rituals listed below by tribe. Each included an esoteric component conducted privately by a formulist and assistants and a public component that involved either the Deerskin Dance or the Jumping Dance. These dances are identified by the same terms in native languages: both are called opyuweg in Yurok, wuwuhina in Karok, and chitdilya in Hupa (Kroeber and Gifford 1949:3).

Ritual Components of the World Renewal Complex^[2]

Karok

Isivsanen Pikiavish ("World Repairing") Ceremony at Inam

Isivsanen Pikiavish ("World Repairing") Ceremony at Katimin

Isivsanen Pikiavish ("World Repairing") Ceremony at Panaminik^[3]

First Salmon Ceremony at Amaikiaram^[4]

Hupa^[5]

Acorn Feast

First Salmon Ceremony

Fish Dam Ceremony

First Eel Ceremony

Jump Dance

Deerskin Dance

Yurok

Deerskin Dance at Weitchpec^[6]

Jump Dance at Weitchpec

Fish Dam Dance at Kepel^[7]

Rebuilding of Sacred Sweathouse at Pekwan^[8]

Rebuilding of Sacred Sweathouse at Rekwoi

First Salmon Ceremony at Welkwau^[9]

All these ceremonies are believed to have been originated by the prehuman beings, and in the esoteric portion a medicine man usually speaks a formula that describes how the ritual was first created and assures that the same procedure is being followed now as before. The formulist also performs actions that replicate those of the spirit-persons. This can be illustrated through the Karok ritual isivsanen pikiavish , the name of which should be translated as "world repairing." In this ceremony the fatavenan or "priest" makes a trek to various sacred spots, and at each place he performs actions symbolizing what the prehuman beings did in order to renew the world. He is also sometimes called ixkareya ara , a term that means "spirit-person" and thus emphasizes the mimetic character of the ritual.

The ixkareya ara was required to prepare for his role by abstaining from water, sex, and other profane activities for more than a month. Nor did he take food during this period except for a thin acorn soup. Instead, he would stay around the sweathouse, continually crying and gathering wood while expressing his gratitude to the spirit-persons through offerings of tobacco and angelica root. All of these things were done much as if the priest were an ordinary person praying for wealth, but in his role as ixkareya ara he was further sanctified. Observers were forbidden to look at him as he performed the ritual, nor could they make loud noises within earshot for fear of spoiling their own lives. This was because his actions during these rituals were believed to affect the condition of the world as a whole. It was assumed, for example, that if he did not fast on acorn soup, the animals would become ravenous and eat all the food that Indians needed to gather, thus causing a famine (Kroeber and Gifford 1949:6).

Various forms of the First Salmon Ceremony focused on preparation and consumption of the first salmon taken in the spring run. As in the Hupa version described in chapter 3, the medicine formula spoken is typically conciliatory in nature, as the priest seeks to obtain permission for Indians to consume the flesh of the salmon

during the coming year. The First Eel Ceremony and the Acorn Feast had a similar character, and indeed these rituals have numerous parallels in so-called first fruits ceremonies found among other tribal groups of northern California.

The Acorn Feast of the Hupa merits particular attention as being the only World Renewal component conducted mainly by women. Here the formulist asks for abundance of acorns and prays that the people should be spared from sickness. The following translation is a segment of a prayer spoken while a formulist and her assistants grind acorn meal in their mortars. There is the scent of angelica burning in a ceremonial fire, and her prayer includes words which can be translated as follows:

Acorns will be plentiful in our district on these mountains. There will be no sickness. People will gather acorns happily. If one eats little he will fill as though he had eaten much. Birds and other animals' stomachs will be upset. They will not eat much. Similarly with insects of all kinds. (Gifford 1940b )^[10]

Finally, there are rituals that centered upon the construction of sacred structures. Fish weirs were ceremonially constructed by the Yuroks at Kepel and by the Hupas near Takimilding. At Pekwan and Rekwoi, the Yuroks conducted rituals in which a sweathouse was rebuilt. Restoration of the sweathouse structure was intended to symbolize the renewal of the world as a whole.

All these esoteric rituals were conducted in connection with public events known in English as the Deerskin Dance and the Jump Dance. These dances are sometimes said to serve special functions within the overall context of world renewal, especially in more modern times as other elements of the religious complex have declined. Thus, for example, Hupa Indians attributed the following functions to various public rituals when interviewed around 1940.

The purpose of the [Deerskin] Dance is to wipe out the evil brought into the world by members of society who have broken taboos. In this way it is a purification or world-renewal ritual as no other Hupa Dance is. There are other rites to renew specific foods, salmon, acorns or eels; the Jump Dance to ward off illness, and the Brush Dance to cure the sick, but only the White Deerskin Dance wipes away the evil brought on by those who have spoiled the world. (Goldschmidt and Driver 1940:121)

This explanation corresponds to those given during the late 1970s, but some of the most knowledgeable Indians I knew declined to verbalize on the subject at all. When asked why the dances were performed, Frank Douglas (Yurok) simply said, "That's our religion." Others did make it clear that the dances were intended for the pleasure of the wo'gey rather than for the human audiences in attendance. Thus it is not surprising that songs of the Deerskin Dance and Jump Dance have a "sobbing" quality that seems to symbolize the crying expected in spiritual interactions.

The Deerskin Dance^[11]

Songs of the Deerskin Dance have a solemn and dignified quality so striking that even the first-time listener can hardly fail to recognize their sacred purpose. Speaking of Yurok mythology, Kroeber repeatedly noted that stories of the wo'gey were filled with grief and longing,^[12] and the character of this music seems to reflect these emotions. While very apparent in recorded examples, the impression is even stronger when one hears this singing in actual context.

Yurok, Hupa, and Karok versions of the Deerskin Dance are each slightly different, and in earlier times the dance was conducted according to slightly different rules at every village that had a dance. The ceremony always lasts several days, however, and includes several sets of dances each day. Different groups alternate in performing the dances, and there is a spirit of competition between these "teams."^[13] Goldschmidt and Driver observed that the Hupa Deerskin dance of 1935 lasted eight days and included six dances each day (1940:110). By contrast, a Yurok Deerskin Dance held at Weitchpec in 1901 lasted eighteen days, with several dances each day (Kroeber and Gifford 1949:68).

A Typical Deerskin Dance

As the men walk from the dressing area to the clearing where they dance, each intones long notes using vocables such as "whoa." These foghornlike sounds are sustained for four or five seconds and are set in the lowest register of the male vocal range. Besides being independent with respect to tonality, these parts are also rhyth-

mically incongruent, yet there is a sense of order because all the tones have a similar timbre and seem to blend into a single body of sound. The effect is very striking when several voices are heard together in this manner.

Between nine and fifteen males generally perform in a single dance, and their procession moves gradually to the dance area where they stand in a line as indicated in the diagram below.

Once the dancers are in position, the main singer begins. Holding his deerskin pole like the others in the row, he starts patting time with his foot. Once all the others are also stamping in time with him, he starts to sing, the assistants singing faintly in unison or trailing the main part heterophonically. These songs are wordless, which is to say the singer uses vocables or syllables without lexical meaning.

After a few phrases, the main singer is accompanied by the dancers who chant an ostinato figure that outlines the 6/8 rhythm as indicated in example 1 below. This "hey-hey" figure is not sung in focused tones; rather, the delivery is percussive in character and indistinct in pitch.^[15] The dancers stamp their feet to the beat and hold out their deerskin poles, which bob up and down gently in time to the music. Soon the red flint carriers arise from either side and begin to move across the main line of dancers, holding the flints well out in front of them at arm's length.^[16] As they display the blades in this manner, they each blow a constant note on their whistles, adding yet another level to the musical texture. The whistles were traditionally made from a bone of the leg of the blue crane, but toy whistles are often used as substitutes today. The whistles are blown softly and produce a breathy tone that is independent of the ensemble with respect to pitch.^[17]

As the flint carriers pass before them, some of the dancers on one side emit a volley of whoops, sounding a high note loudly and letting their voices fade away as they descend in pitch. After a full measure, this whoop is answered by dancers from the other side of the line, so that an echo effect is produced. These whoops are also not related to the main song with respect to tonality, nor are they definitely coordinated with its phrasing.

The songs are brief in duration, lasting between two to three minutes, and the ending is signified by a whoop or "flourish" from the main singer. Usually, the song is ended after the flint carriers

Diagram 2.
Position of performers in the Deerskin Dance.^[14]

have passed in front of the line three times and returned to their original positions. The main singer then signifies conclusion at the end of the next phrase, even though his solo part might be incomplete from a formal standpoint. Between songs, there is a break of about thirty seconds, and during this period any of the dancers may sound one of the long foghornlike sounds described above. The song is sung three times, then a new one is sung and the red flint carriers are replaced by men carrying black ones.

A complete set of songs lasts about thirty minutes, after which the dancers proceed back to the dressing area to remove their ritual clothing and store the deerskin poles until it is time for them to dance again. In the meantime, another set of dancers prepares to appear, and the day passes with alternate periods of dancing and feasting.

The Musical Texture

The various elements in Deerskin Dance singing combine to produce a rich texture which is coordinated rather loosely. The main melodic part is augmented by sound layers of indefinite pitch, and the whole ensemble is unified mainly by rhythm. The musical texture of a typical phrase is illustrated in example 1.

Example 1.
Elements of musical organization in the Deerskin Dance.

The Solo Part

The late Abraham Jack (Hupa) was one of the most highly regarded singers in recent decades, and one of his well-known Deerskin Dance songs provides an excellent model for describing the genre in general. A rough transcription is provided in example 2. In keeping with its sacred nature, the song is sung entirely in vocables, as the use of lexically meaningful texts in ritual music is generally more frequent in secular songs such as the "light songs" heard in the Brush Dance.

One important characteristic in this music is the general tendency for the soloist to chant the tonic pitch at the beginning of a song and at the end of each major section. This chanting is called "rhythm" by the Indians themselves. In the song above, for example, the soloist begins by chanting a bit of "rhythm" to get his pitch

Example 2.
Deerskin Dance song sung by Abraham Jack (Hupa) 
and recorded by Mary Woodward in 1953.

and to establish a rhythmic framework for the song to follow. After he has completed at least one major phrase-group, the soloist is joined by others who chant "rhythm" for an accompaniment as indicated in example 1 (part B).

In each major phrase group, the solo part begins at or near the upper limit of its range and gradually descends to merge with the chanting of the accompanists. This downward progression creates a sense of drama and climax in the music. It tends to integrate the solo part with the accompaniment, and at the same time it serves a cadential function by indicating the close of each phrase-group. As a compositional device, it is perhaps the single most important concept in group singing among the tribes considered here, for it occurs in various types of ensemble singing and is even present as an organizing principle in many of the medicine songs used by individuals.

The overall form of the song in example 2 may be described as a simple strophe^[19] of the following shape: (Rhythm) A A A₁ (Rhythm) B B A₁ (Rhythm). The B sections generally feature long sustained notes sung somewhat higher in pitch than the A sections, and this basically binary form may represent a version of "the rise" as noted among the Yumans by George Herzog (1928:193) and among other California tribes by Bruno Nettl (1954:18-19).^[20] In actual performance, the ending of the song is determined by the movements of the dancers (see above), and thus the form is not necessarily completed on the last repetition. Whenever the flint carriers complete their circuit, the soloist will signify conclusion by using the ending "flourish" notated in the last line of this example.

The 6/8 or 12/8 meter is a general characteristic of Deerskin Dance songs, and this is intrinsically related to movements of the dance. A strong sense of meter forms the basis for an interlocking relation between the solo part and other elements of the musical texture (see example 1), and there is not much syncopation in these songs. Also in keeping with the dignified character of the music, the tempo is always rather slow.

The melodic range spans an octave and a fifth, and this wide ambitus is a consistent trait which seems to go hand in hand with the use of rather long phrases and descending or terraced-descending melodies. Use of an anhemitonic pentatonic scale is also a general characteristic, and this type of scale is the one most frequently heard in all styles of vocal music. As noted previously, the singer chants "rhythm" on the tonic note at the beginning of the song and

again at the end of each major phrase-group. Therefore there is a strong sense of tonal center throughout the song.

Although this style is generally rather consistent, it is interesting to broaden our analysis by looking at another modern Deerskin Dance that diverges from this one in certain respects. This one is sung by the late Ewing Davis (Hupa), another artist of legendary stature in Hoopa Valley, known locally by the nickname "Fido."

The song in example 3 is very similar to the previous one, but there are important differences. The basic form (AAA BBA) is the same, but Ewing Davis chants "rhythm" at more points during the song. The resultant formal structure may be described as follows:

A (Rhythm) A (Rhythm) A (Rhythm) B (Rhythm) B (Rhythm) A₁ (Rhythm)

It is significant that there are extra beats of "rhythm" chanted in example 3 (indicated in the transcription by brackets). These tend to preclude a feeling of symmetry in the melody, and this occurs in so many recordings of various types of songs that it seems to be aesthetically significant. There appears to be a general distaste for overly symmetrical melodies, and this is also reflected in the occasional use of irregular metric groupings and other subtle variations that apparently serve to avoid an impression of perfectly balanced phrasing.

While the first example was clearly in 6/8 meter, this one is best notated in 12/8, mainly because of the melodic phrasing in the B section. Either meter fits nicely with movements of the dance and other elements of the musical texture.

The scalar material in example 3 provides a more significant point of contrast. While the earlier example used a standard pentatonic scale without half-steps, this one uses an irregular scale in which notes of the upper octave do not exactly correspond to those in the lower one. Regular scales such as the one in example 2 are far more common, but the repertory as a whole contains many examples that are unusual or idiosyncratic with respect to scale and tonality.^[21]

The transcription provided in example 4 allows us to compare these modern Hupa songs with a Yurok Deerskin Dance song collected by Kroeber in 1906.

In most respects, the style of example 4 parallels that of the

Example 3.
Deerskin Dance song sung by Ewing Davis (Hupa) and recorded by Mary Woodward in 1953.

Example 4.
Deerskin Dance song sung by Hawley (Yurok) of Meta and 
recorded by Kroeber in 1906.

Example 4.
Deerskin Dance song sung by Hawley (Yurok) of Meta and recorded 
by Kroeber in 1906. (continued)

previous ones very closely. This song is built on an anhemitonic pentatonic scale, and the rhythm is basically similar to that of the previous examples, even though the tempo is a bit quicker. As in the previous example, there are instances in which the singer has added "extra" beats of "rhythm" (indicated with brackets) which tend to reduce the feeling of symmetry in the phrasing.

The most important point of contrast involves the formal structure. Omitting consideration of the "rhythm" sung between sections, the more modern songs are most often based upon strophic repetition of an AAA BBA pattern. In example 4 there are traces of this general outline, but there is more repetition of the A section and phrase-groups are varied more on repetition. The song is not strophic but rather of a form that would be best coded as a complex

litany with moderate variation in terms of cantometrics terminology (Lomax 1968:58-59). The overall structure could be analyzed as follows:

A A₁ A₂ B A₂ B A₂ A₂ B A₂ A₃ (Ending)

This comparatively loose formal structure seems to be typical in early recordings and it seems likely that the genre has become somewhat more regular in form over the past one hundred years. A similar pattern of apparent stylistic change will also be noted in the next chapter through comparison of recent and early Brush Dance songs.

The War Dance and the Boat Dance

At certain places, an imitation War Dance and a ceremony called the Boat Dance are performed in conjunction with the Deerskin Dance. An early version of the War Dance was described by Pete Henry (Karok), and the following excerpt is quoted from the unpublished fieldnotes of Helen Roberts (1926a ).

In the War Dance about ten men stand side to side in a row. Two stand, one at each end, a little in advance of the row, facing one another as in the Deerskin Dance. Sometimes the end men squat. The men in the row stand holding out their bows in front of them, using both hands and holding the string nearest to the body, vertically, with the left hand above, the right below, and the arrow at the back of the bow and parallel to it. These ten men lift the right foot and stamp to the beat and sing. They act as a chorus. The two end men have whistles which they also blow on the beat. They carry a fisher skin and some brush which sticks out behind the arm under the shoulder and is thrown away when the dance is over. The two warriors advance toward one another stepping with bent knees and feet lifted high, blowing their whistles and brandishing their bows and arrows. The bow is held in the left hand with the string toward the arm, the bow being vertical. The arrow is held vertically in the right hand. As they advance toward one another down the line they cry 'i, 'i, 'i, on the beat, but when they reach the opposite end from where they started and turn around, they cease crying and blow their bone whistles on the beat as they advance back to their original places, with their bodies upright, not bent forward as before. They may pass on either side of one another as they march. (Roberts 1926a )

As described above, this seems quite similar to the Deerskin Dance itself, and the resemblances even led Goldschmidt and Driver to speculate that elements of the Deerskin Dance may have originally derived from some version of the real War Dance, various forms of which were once widespread among Indians of northern California (1940: 126-128). From a diffusionist perspective, the idea that the local and highly specialized Deerskin Dance might have evolved from the widespread and presumably more ancient War Dance has much appeal; however, we should bear in mind that this hypothesis is largely speculative and that it also neglects the possibility that local versions of the War Dance may have been influenced by the Deerskin Dance in relatively recent times.

I recently heard that a demonstration War Dance was performed at Rekwa during the early 1980s with Dewey George (Yurok) presiding. However, the dance is mainly performed by Karoks in modern times and is probably more closely associated historically with the Karoks than with other tribes of the area. The dance occurs in the late afternoon at the very end of the Deerskin Dance at various locations in Karok territory and is said to have been invented by Coyote (Kroeber and Gifford 1949:33). There are relatively few recordings of the songs used in the War Dance, but Helen Roberts recorded a few examples as performed by Pete Henry (Karok) and by Bernard Jerry (Karok) in 1926.

The Boat Dance occurs only in connection with the Hupa Deerskin Dance today, though previously it was conducted at various places in Yurok territory. I have seen the Boat Dance twice but I would still quote from the detailed account given in Goldschmidt and Driver (1940), who describe the entire Deerskin Dance as performed in Hoopa Valley in 1935 and 1937. The whole event lasted eight days, and this takes place during the afternoon of the third day:

There are four boats, two from each camp. Crouched in the bow of each are two flint carriers, wearing all their lesser regalia but without the deerskins, otterskins, and flints. Their faces are painted solid black, and as they sit they hold paddles across the boat prows to keep them abreast and together. The dancers move their heads around slowly, perhaps in imitation of the sea lion, and they blow on their whistles. One paddler propels each boat from the seat carved in the stern, and the medicine man rides in one of the boats.

Behind the flint carriers stand the singers, the first leaning on a stick planted against the bottom of the boat, the others leaning on the shoulder of the man in front. In 1935 there were four dancers in each boat; in 1937, only two. This may have been due to an increased lack of interest, or it may have been simply a precaution against overloading of the aging boats, which had capsized on the previous occasion. The dance consists of a rhythmic bending of both knees to the beat of the song. None of the more valuable objects are worn in the boats, probably because of the danger of losing them. (Goldschmidt and Driver 1940: 110-111)

The solid redwood canoes take off from a large rock on the riverbank, but several times they return to shore after paddling about ten yards. Finally they proceed downstream, the singers chanting a special song accompanied by the whistles of the flint carriers.^[22] Meanwhile, the audience moves downstream to meet the boats at the landing point. When they seem ready to touch land, however, the boats are pushed back from the bank. The singing continues as several false landings are made, until finally the boats are pulled up onto the beach.

Shortly thereafter the dancers hold a mock Deerskin Dance farther up on the beach. This is an intentionally comic parody in which rags are held upon poles instead of the beautifully decorated deerskins that are used in a real dance.

The Jump Dance

A curious part of this dance is the peculiar expression of countenance assumed by the men who sing the solos. They evidently work themselves up into a hysterical condition, for their faces assume a far-away, ecstatic look, and they seem for the time being to inhabit another world .
Woodruff 1892:54

While the Deerskin Dance has an austere and dignified character, the Jump Dance more clearly displays the extreme pitch of emotion which characterizes the spiritual tradition, and those who have seen the dance will probably recognize the ecstatic facial expression that was noted by Woodruff in 1892.^[23] This emotion pervades the singing as well; the "sobbing" mentioned previously is

very pronounced in these songs, and the use of slow, irregular rhythms also gives the music a strange and hypnotic quality.

In many respects, the Jump Dance parallels the Deerskin Dance just described. The ritual lasts several days, ten being the norm among the Hupa (Goddard 1903-1904:82) and the Karoks (Kroeber and Gifford 1949:45). Each day there are a number of separate dances performed by alternating groups of performers. One significant difference is that the Deerskin Dance is held in different locations each day of the ritual, while the Hupa Jump Dance is performed in the same location each day.

A Typical Dance

Like the Deerskin Dance, this one is performed by men standing in a line, but in this case they align themselves in front of a fence that was ritually constructed for the purpose of the dance.^[24] Not quite six feet tall, the fence is about thirty feet long. While the dance is in progress, no one may stand behind the fence or at either end of the dance area, because these places are reserved for the kixunai ("spirit-persons") and their view of the ceremony must not be obstructed.

Each man wears a scarlet-colored headband decorated with scalps of the piliated woodpecker. A single eagle feather projects upward from the back of his head, and each has necklaces of beads and shells around his neck. A hundred years ago, these men would have worn buckskin breechcloths, but today they wear trousers, over which is a deerskin skirt that hangs down almost to the ankles. This skirt is not fastened, but rather the ends of it are clutched in the dancer's left hand so that it can be removed easily at the appropriate time. Each man is barefoot. Most important, each dancer holds a woven Jump Dance basket in his right hand. This is shaped like one of the elk-horn purses in which the Indians traditionally kept dentalium shell money.^[25] During the dance, these baskets will be held up high, evidently as an offering to the kixunai .

Dressed like this, several dancers (usually between seven and eleven) march single file and align themselves in front of the fence as indicated in diagram 3. At first they are seated. The centerman and the singers sit on three stone blocks, while the other dancers sit on the ground. Throughout the dance, the centerman will take

Diagram 3.
Position of performers in the Jump Dance.

a leading role, though remaining silent the whole time; he initiates all the dance movements and is more animated than the other dancers. He has fasted specially for the occasion, and throughout the dance he twists and turns his head in movements said to imitate the woodpecker.

Following the centerman's lead, the dancers stand and begin the first phase of the dance. Holding the Jump Dance baskets by the middle of the upper edge, they lift them high over their head in the right hand, and at the same time they lift a foot from the ground. Then, as the basket is lowered, they stamp the foot from a height of six to twelve inches. As Barrett notes, the motion is as if the dancer were taking a long step forward, but actually he does not move out of his place (1963:79). While doing this, the dancers repeatedly chant a figure which might be notated as in example 5.

Then two soloists take turns singing over this accompaniment. After each has sung his song twice and the dancers have repeated their movement thirty or more times, the centerman stops the dance and all sit down to rest. After a minute or two they rise and the group repeats what they have done. Following another break, it is done once more to make three times in all. After the third time, the dancers remove their deerskin skirts and place them on the ground in front of them. The Jump Dance baskets are placed on top of this, and then, after standing in place and intoning the bass pattern once again, they sit down again to rest. This ends the first phase of the dance.

Example 5.
Bass figure sung by dancers in the Jump Dance.^[26]

After a short time, following a signal from the centerman, they rise again and sound the bass figure once more while standing still. Then each takes the hand of the man on either side, and the dancers all raise their hands in unison, with the fingers interlaced. At the same time, they bend at the knees and jump or hop in place. They sound the bass pattern as they do this.^[27] After perhaps thirty jumps, they sit down and rest for a minute. This phase of the dance is repeated twice for a total of three performances, and after picking up their baskets and hide skirts the dancers file out and return to the dressing area.

One complete dance takes between thirty and forty minutes, and two or more dances are generally performed during each of the ten days of the Jump Dance ritual. As in the Deerskin Dance, there are always at least two "sides" that compete in the singing, and in earlier times there were more groups in competition.

The Musical Texture

In this music, two soloists take turns singing over a bass part which is chanted by the rest of the dancers in a low register. Curiously, the bass figure is generally sung at a slightly slower tempo than solo part; thus the two parts are metrically out of phase. For me, this and the slow tempo of both parts produce an "other-worldly" quality that perfectly matches the spiritual purpose of the songs.

In a recording made by Margaret Woodward in 1953, the bass figure illustrated in example 5 was sung together with the solo part notated in example 6. In this instance, the bass part was sung on a scale tone of the solo part. In most actual performances, there is little sense of pitch focus or tonal blend in the collective intonations of the dancers, and tonality is not a major factor in the musical organization. Rhythm seems more important in this respect, as solo and bass parts are similar in tempo and meter, though not perfectly

congruent. Since the two parts differ slightly in tempo, they grow out of phase with each other, and this seems to be another instance in which there is an avoidance of musical relationships that are overly symmetrical or congruent and a preference for those which are more complex and "natural" in character.

The Solo Part

Like those of the Deerskin Dance, all of the Jump Dance songs are wordless. While simpler in formal structure, they are sung with a "sobbing" delivery that is often more pronounced than that heard in the Deerskin Dance. Thus the music is rather complex on a microtonal level; the song in example 6 provides a good model for analysis, but readers should bear in mind that the transcription has been simplified somewhat for purposes of clarity. The pitches are not so clearly focused as the notations indicate, nor do the notations adequately indicate the pervasive tremolo and slurred articulations that are used throughout the song.

A song such as this would be sung in alternation with that of another soloist, and this exchange defines the larger formal structure in Jump Dance music. Each man completes his entire song, then repeats it after his partner has sung. In each repeat the song is varied slightly. Since the songs are sung in pairs, it is not surprising that they are each shorter and somewhat less complex than the Deerskin Dance songs considered previously. The form of example 6 might be analyzed as A A B B₁ (Coda), and each motive is briefer in durations than those of the Deerskin Dance.

The tempo is very slow and use of compound meters such as 6/8 or 9/8 is typical. In example 6, the meter is rather consistent throughout, but changing meters also occur often in these songs.

In general, the melodic and tonal characteristics of Jump Dance songs parallel those of the Deerskin Dance songs considered previously. The range is typically rather wide, and the melodies are usually descending in contour. Here again the anhemitonic pentatonic scale is the most common type heard, and the only unusual thing about the tonal structure of example 6 is the occurrence of the nontonic tone c as a finalis.

The same basic style is evident in the Yurok Jump Dance song performed by Frank Douglas (Yurok). In example 7, the solo part

Example 6.
Jump Dance song sung by Abraham Jack (Hupa) and recorded 
by Mary Woodward in 1953.

also gives the impression of crying, but the effect is achieved somewhat differently than in the previous example, which simply employs a nasal delivery and tremolo throughout. Here the song includes two descending motives (B and B₁ ) which seem to imitate the contours of a "sobbing" voice, and sudden changes in the dynamic level also contribute to this impression.

Like the previous example, this one has a structure based upon paired phrases, and the motivic form might be represented as A A₁ B B₁ C C₁ . Here, however, the pairs are somewhat more divergent in character. The range of this song is extremely wide (an octave and a major sixth), but in this instance the melodic motives are not uniformly descending in contour. The tonality is also irregular; although it employs an anhemitonic pentatonic scale, there is a shift of tonal center during the course of the song from g¹ (A motives) to b-flat (B and C motives).

In its overall character the song notated in example 7 seems highly emotional or impulsive, and one might suppose that a song so irregular in meter and dynamics would be sung differently from performance to performance. This was not the case, however, as I heard Frank Douglas sing this song more than ten times and it was always done the same way.

Example 7.
Jump Dance song sung by Frank Douglas (Yurok) and recorded 
by Richard Keeling in 1978.

Chapter Six
Rituals to Help Human Beings

If the baby is sick or not doing well, that's why we wave that fire over them. It scares away things. It helps the baby to grow stronger. And then you use sugar pine bark, and pound it up and put it in a little cup. With water. That's what you give the baby to drink. . . . It's supposed to be in the spring of the year when you have this Brush Dance, so that the child will grow up with all the leaves and the blossoms and the grass. With everything that's growing. And he'll grow up in that. He or she, whatever. And he'll be just like that.
The purpose of the Brush Dance as explained by medicine woman Alice Pratt (Hupa) on August 24, 1979

The Brush Dance

The Brush Dance^[1] is traditionally performed to cure a child who is feverish or sickly. In the center of a pit, a medicine woman and her helper work on the baby; they hold it in steam produced by certain herbs, massage it, and wave burning sticks of pitchwood over it. The duties of the medicine woman were described in chapter 2 and a more detailed account is found in Keeling (1982a ).

Because of the use of burning pitchwood the dance is called hont naht weht ("fire-waving dance") in the Hupa language. The Yurok word for it is meyli or melo - and the Karok term is hapish .^[2] The English expression "Brush Dance" presumably derives from the fact that the male dancers hold brush in front of them rather than carrying regalia on the first night. Today they use salal brush for this purpose, but Sam Jones (Yurok) mentioned that they used to dance with blue spruce (February 5, 1979). The blue spruce is only

found at higher elevations and is less abundant today because of logging.

The public component of the ritual takes place during the night. While the medicine woman works on the child, males of various ages (and some younger girls) file into the pit and sing in order to help the doctoring. The singers are supposed to concentrate on the well-being of the baby, and this augments the prayers and good thoughts of the medicine woman. All of the songs are short, generally about one minute in length, and there are two types: heavy songs and light songs. Each set of songs begins with a heavy song, and these are more religious in character and slower in tempo than the light songs which follow. The heavy songs are always wordless and are sung only by men. After the heavy song is sung three times, any of the men or girls can sing a light song. A light song is also sung three times, and between each rendition there is a brief silence. After any song is sung three times, there is another, somewhat longer pause which lasts until another soloist is moved to begin. In all, a set of songs typically lasts about one half hour. Nowadays, two "teams" take turns in the pit, and they alternate through the night until morning.

The Musical Texture

At an actual dance, the listener's impression of Brush Dance singing is dominated by the unusual manner in which the male singers accompany the soloist. The soloist starts alone, and after a few phrases by him the others begin their rhythmic ostinato. This is done softly at first, but it becomes increasingly louder and more markedly rhythmic until toward the end they all but drown out the soloist because of the volume of their chanting.

This unusual vocal technique is rather difficult to describe in words, though Woodruff simply referred to it as "a weird grunt" (1892:59). In its most basic form, the ostinato consists of a series of forceful glottal stops that mark a regular one-beat rhythm. One singer might assist in this manner (sharply accenting each beat), while the man next to him softly murmurs vocables with resonant nasality and much tremolo or vocal pulsation. Yet another accompanist might add a soloistic part that trails the main part hetero-

phonically. Thus the various accompanimental parts are often rather individualistic, but these differences are largely obscured as each man's voice becomes lost in the complex sound of the ensemble.

As in other dances, this accompanimental singing is called "rhythm" by the Indian singers themselves, and example 8 shows some patterns which are frequently used.

Although framed in repeat signs, these would not be repeated exactly but rather with considerable flexibility. Moreover (as mentioned previously) each would begin quite softly and grow louder throughout the course of the song. Many of the vocable patterns suggest 4/4 meter when sung by individuals in demonstration, but accent is uniform, and the collective effect in an actual performance is one-beat meter. The simpler patterns shown in the upper examples would occur in faster tempos, and the more irregular patterns shown in the lower examples would be used in slower songs.^[3] Use of X's rather than note-heads indicates lack of pitch-focus, and parenthesized grace notes are meant to depict a sort of "glottal trill" which resembles sobbing.

In example 9 I have transcribed one phrase-group of a heavy song sung by soloist Fred Davis (Hupa/Chilula) accompanied by Herman Sherman, Sr. (Hupa).^[4] Rather than using a conventional "rhythm" pattern throughout, Mr. Sherman chooses to accompany this part of the song by faintly trailing the descending melody of the soloist. He does so quite softly, as if he were humming rather than singing. Then toward the end of the phrase-group he and the soloist both employ more conventional "rhythm."

In an actual dance the accompanists sometimes take even greater liberties than this; the parts they add not only "echo" the solo part but loudly assert their independence. This is heard on a (light) Brush Dance song sung by Dorothy Moore (Yurok) and a group of men on a recording made by Margaret Woodward in 1953 (see appendix 1).

Heavy Songs

The heavy songs are wordless, and they are generally performed with a "sobbing" vocal delivery much like that heard in the Deerskin Dance or the Jump Dance. The solo part of a heavy song

Example 8.
Typical "rhythm" parts chanted by male accompanists in the Brush Dance.

Example 9.
Segment of a heavy song with accompaniment in heterophonic style.

by Elmer Jarnaghan (Hupa) is transcribed in example 10. The song is typical in beginning with a short intonation that establishes a tonal and rhythmic framework for what will follow. This bit of "rhythm"^[5] also sets the tempo for the accompanists or "helpers." It also usually defines the tonic pitch of the solo part, and indeed it does so here though Jarnaghan has somewhat masked the fact by echoing the final note of each phrase-group (except X) with a measure or two of "rhythm" sung a minor third lower.^[6]

Example 10.
Brush Dance heavy song performed by Elmer Jarnaghan (Hupa) and recorded 
by Richard Keeling in 1979.

Example 10.
Brush Dance heavy song performed by Elmer Jarnaghan (Hupa) and recorded 
by Richard Keeling in 1979. (continued)

As in most Brush Dance songs, each phrase-group begins with a melodic leap to a relatively high pitch and descends gradually to cadence in the chanting of "rhythm." Thus each section typically ends with the solo singer allowing his voice to become absorbed in the glottalized ostinato of the group.

Most of these songs include a contrasting (B) section in which the singer moves up to a higher pitch level and delivers new melodic material in a climactic fashion. Thus the most typical structure is an AAB-type form, though note that the letters refer to phrase-groups rather than to motives as in previous analyses of other genres. The song in example 10 has an extra phrase-group (X) and a recapitulation which make its form AA(X)BA, but this follows the basic pattern and is only one of many possible variants that are heard.^[7]

All of these Brush Dance songs are rhythmically exciting. Even though example 10 is rather slow in tempo and modest in its use

of syncopation, the singer is constantly "stretching" the beat against that of the ostinato, much as a modern blues singer might. When Indian singers tap their foot to the music, they raise the toe on the downbeat and let it fall on the offbeat, thus producing a cross-accent like that produced by a jazz drummer when he strikes the ride cymbal on the weak beats of a 4/4 measure.

In the dance itself this cross-accent is particularly noticeable, as all the dancers rock their bodies in a similar counter-rhythmic fashion and wear heavy shell necklaces which rustle loudly in concert with the movement. The men heave their torsos up and down from the waist in a rather forceful way, and if there are girls in the pit they bob up and down on the balls of their feet in a more restrained way. All these songs have a duple feel, and 4/4 meter is the general rule.

The reader may have noticed that the pitch level of the song drops one half-step between phrase-groups X and B, and instances of "pitch drift" (in either direction) are common in the repertory as a whole. Adjusting for this, we find a scale that is anhemitonic and pentatonic, but here again (as in examples 3 and 7) the scale is irregular in that notes of the upper octave and lower octave do not correspond exactly. As mentioned previously, this is not the general rule but occurs often enough to be regarded as stylistic. Here again the melodic range is wide, and the overall contour is descending or perhaps terraced-descending. Finally, the ending of the song is signaled by a closing "flourish" shouted by the soloist, and this is a general characteristic of Brush Dance songs.

While the song in example 10 seems to have a relatively static or "fixed" character, others such as the one transcribed in example 11 are more spontaneous or improvisatory in nature.

In example 11 the formal structure is ABB₁ , the B₁ phrase-group being drawn out into a rather lengthy improvisation. Thus the tension increases as the song moves toward an end. The songs are sung three times, and a superior singer often embellishes the last section of the song more and more each time, dramatically extending the climax of the music. Ewing Davis was a master at this, but other modern singers use a similar approach.

Having examined different versions of the AAB-type form in modern recordings, it is interesting to compare a Brush Dance song performed in 1906 by Domingo (Yurok), a famous singer from

Example 11.
Brush Dance heavy song sung by Ewing Davis (Hupa) and recorded 
by Frank Quinn in 1956.

Example 11.
Brush Dance heavy song sung by Ewing Davis (Hupa) and recorded 
by Frank Quinn in 1956. (continued)

Weitchpec. Generally speaking, the style is typical of that heard on cylinder recordings collected among Yuroks around the turn of the century.

Like the modern songs discussed previously, the song in example 12 is wordless. The early song also resembles recent ones in that its melody consists mainly of an alternation between motives sung in the upper register and "rhythm" motives chanted in the lower part of the singer's range. But instead of having the AAB-type form, which has been postulated as a sort of norm in modern singing, this one has an irregular structure in which "rhythm" motives are much more prominent. This occurs in other early recordings and seems to suggest that the relatively common AAB-type form in modern recordings could be a recent development. A similar trend was noted with respect to Deerskin Dance songs.

The Light Songs

While the heavy songs are always wordless, light songs often have meaningful texts or lyrics which reveal their secular character. Example 13 is a transcription of a light song sung by Herman Sherman, Sr. (Hupa). Although many of the men's light songs are sung entirely in vocables, this one has a text. Addressed by an older man to the sweetheart of his youth, the words could be translated, "Where we used to meet the grass is grown up high now." While locals are quick to point out the humorous or sexually suggestive character of Brush Dance lyrics, the tender sentiment in this text shows the expressive range that they can cover.

Example 12.
Brush Dance heavy song sung by Domingo (Yurok) of Weitchpec and recorded 
by A. L. Kroeber in 1906.^[8]

Except for its use of a text and a somewhat quicker tempo, this light song is similar in style to the modern heavy songs considered previously. It begins with a measure of "rhythm," and in each phrase-group the musical interest centers upon the progress of the solo part as it first rises above the ensemble's ostinato, then gradually descends to merge with it. The use of a text in sections A and B makes this juxtaposition apparent, as words are used in the beginning of each phrase-group and vocables are used for the "rhythm" motives at the end.

Example 13.
Brush Dance light song sung by Herman Sherman, Sr. (Hupa) and recorded 
by Richard Keeling in 1979.

Example 13.
Brush Dance light song sung by Herman Sherman, Sr. (Hupa) and recorded 
by Richard Keeling in 1979. (continued)

Once again the postulated AAB-type form is interpreted quite freely, and the actual structure of this song is A X B B₁ . Very seldom are phrase-groups repeated exactly in this style, but section X is clearly new material and seems to be improvised. Possibly (I feel) the singer began a new musical thought here and then decided against it for one reason or another. The style provides much freedom in this respect, for the soloist can chant "rhythm" motives virtually any time he wants to abandon one melodic idea and move on to another.^[9]

As mentioned above, light songs in the Brush Dance may be sung by women as well as by men, and this is the main occasion for female singing in public ritual music today. In example 14 I have transcribed a light song sung by Aileen Figueroa (Yurok). Humorous and sexually explicit texts are common in this genre, and this text (set in sections V and VI) has been freely translated, "She was just an old woman, but she was a helper from the bottom." Lyrics like this often originate from spontaneous wisecracking at the dance itself, but then they might be used and remembered by local audiences for generations. This light song, for example, is still known by many today as "Grandpa Natt's Song," and it was first recorded as sung by Robert Natt (Yurok) himself in 1932.^[10]

This example illustrates general characteristics of the female style, as opposed to that of the male singing in the Brush Dance: (1) the melodic contours tend to be undulating rather than descending, (2) the formal structure typically consists of one short phrase-group repeated several times with variation rather than using the AAB-type pattern,^[12] (3) the motive at the end of the song is soft

Example 14.
Brush Dance light song by Aileen Figueroa (Yurok) recorded 
by Charlotte Heth in 1975.^[11]

Example 14.
Brush Dance light song by Aileen Figueroa (Yurok) recorded 
by Charlotte Heth in 1975.^[11]  (continued)

and brief compared with the shouts or "flourishes" that men use as a way of signifying conclusion,^[13] and (4) elements of the glottalized ostinato accompaniment are not integrated into the solo part of girls' songs, as they generally are in the men's solos.

The last-mentioned point is especially significant, for it illustrates how male and female soloists differ in relation to the ensemble. The male soloist interacts with the other male singers, his part alternately rising above the ensemble and descending to merge with it. By contrast, the girls' songs remain more independent of the ensemble, dancing over the surface like a bubble in a brook. Typically, however, the girls' songs include syncopations which gently contradict the steady and emphatic beat of the ensemble.

Finally, the girls' singing differs from that of the men in vocal

quality. Compared with the men's singing, there is much less glottalization, pulsation, and raspiness in the voice. In the men's songs there is a tense and nasalized vocal delivery in the upper registers alternating with diffuse and glottalized articulations on the lower notes. By contrast, Aileen Figueroa's voice has a light and tuneful quality throughout the song, and this is very typical of the style used by girls in the Brush Dance.

The Kick Dance or Doctor-Making Dance^[14]

The Kick Dance has not been performed for many years. It was traditionally held in the sweathouse in order to help an Indian doctor control her power. This was considered necessary because the acquisition and use of power were believed to have a disorienting effect upon the female shaman. Pete Henry (Karok) specifically stated that the dance was used "for the curing of a new doctor" (Roberts 1926a ), but from another perspective it seems clear that the dance also served to validate and confirm the young woman's new professional status in the eyes of the community.

The ritual begins at sunset, when wood is placed on the fire. After it has burned down once and night has fallen, several men enter the sweathouse and take their places around the fire. The Indian doctor then enters, seats herself, and begins to smoke tobacco. After a bit, someone sings a heavy song and the others help by singing "rhythm." The men are seated on stools, and they each kick one foot out in front of them so that it falls and strikes the ground on every beat of the music. This is the movement that gives the dance its name.

After the heavy song has been sung three times, someone else sings a light song, and the doctor rises to dance. After dancing through several songs she senses the presence of a "pain" in her mouth and begins to lose control. At this point, an attendant rises and grasps her by the belt from behind, holding her steady. Then, she is released and dances again as she withdraws the "pain," which is shown to the audience and swallowed again. After a rest, the singers begin again and the process is repeated through the night until dawn. In this manner, they dance for five nights.

The morning after the fifth night of dancing, the women prepare

a feast of acorn mush. The doctor now appears in full regalia with her face and arms painted, and the men also are specially dressed as they enter the sweathouse to dance. In this phase of the ceremony, other women also enter the sweathouse to join in the dancing.^[15] Meanwhile, the doctor has begun to dance within the circle of male dancers, who jump in place around her. By this time, she senses another "pain" and sings her doctoring song^[16] as the men continue with their singing.

The men's singing reaches a new level of intensity at this point,^[17] and as the doctor loses control of herself again an attendant steadies her once more by grasping her belt from behind. Her arms are then draped over one of the men's shoulders, as another man takes hold of her feet. In this constrained position she hops counterclockwise around the fire, circling it five times. Finally, after removing her "pain" for the last time, the Indian doctor lies down and goes to sleep. When the ritual is over, the others leave the sweathouse to have a feast and enjoy a general celebration.

The Musical Texture

Nearly all available recordings of this music feature a solo performer only, and the only ensemble recording that I have ever heard features Ewing Davis (Hupa) as soloist with an accompaniment by Jimmy Jackson (Hupa). Throughout the song, Jackson chants "rhythm" motives similar to those used in the Brush Dance but without the marked glottalization that characterizes the latter ritual.

The Solo Part

Like the Brush Dance songs considered previously, Kick Dance songs are relatively brief in duration (average 60-80 seconds) and are divided into two categories: heavy songs and light songs. The heavy songs are always wordless, while the light songs may or may not have lexically meaningful texts. Unlike the Brush Dance lyrics, however, these are not strictly secular. Sam Brown (Hupa) stated that many of the texts were based upon dream experiences and that the texts typically mentioned clouds, fog, birds, or other themes related to the sky (Golla 1984:141).^[18]

Example 15.
Kick Dance accompaniment chanted by Jimmy Jackson on a recording collected 
by Mary Woodward in 1953.

The Kick Dance song transcribed in example 16 reveals a style which is basically quite similar to that of the Brush Dance songs considered previously. Here again, the song consists of several phrase-groups arranged in what I have called an AAB-type form. The actual form is A A₁ A B A₂ A₃ . In each phrase-group the soloist sings a series of motives that begin in a relatively high register of the voice and gradually descend to cadence with the chanting of "rhythm" on the tonic pitch. As in Brush Dance songs, the B section involves a climactic rise to the upper part of the vocal range, and in this example the increased intensity evidently causes the singer's pitch level to sharpen by a half-step.

The style is also similar to that heard in Brush Dance songs in other respects. A duple (4/4 or 2/2) rhythm characterizes both styles,^[19] but the meter is seldom very strict and most songs include measures with more or fewer beats than the meter dictates. As in other genres described above, anhemitonic pentatonic scales are the most common type, though others are often heard, and the melodies are usually descending or terraced-descending in contour.

In all of the genres considered thus far, we have found much variation between songs, and this is also true of Kick Dance songs. Example 17 is sung by Frank Douglas (Yurok) and is simpler in structure than the previous example. Frank's song (and it was a favorite that he often sang while we were driving around) consists only of a single phrase-group sung three times with slight variation. It should also be mentioned that Frank never failed to speak a short formula in Yurok at the end of every Kick Dance song.^[20]

The Flower Dance

The Yurok did not conduct a public ritual for the occasion of a girl's first menstruation, though the Yurok girl was subject to formalized

Example 16.
Kick Dance heavy song sung by Ewing Davis and recorded 
by Mary Woodward in 1953.

Example 16.
Kick Dance heavy song sung by Ewing Davis and recorded 
by Mary Woodward in 1953. (continued)

isolation and fasting over a ten-day period (Kroeber 1925:45). The Karok ritual seems to have been less elaborate than that of the Hupa, but this impression may be due largely to lack of documentation on the ceremony.^[21] Because the Hupa dance is more fully documented, the following description focuses on this version of the ceremony, which is now most commonly referred to as the "Flower Dance." The ceremony has not been performed often in recent years. I have never seen it, but I have been told that it was conducted on more than one occasion during the 1980s.

A Summary of the Flower Dance Ritual^[22]

Upon her first menses, the girl was placed in the care of her grandmother or another close female relative. For ten days, she under-

Example 17.
Kick Dance song sung by Frank Douglas and recorded 
by Richard Keeling in 1979.

went special training during the day and was the object of a ritual held each night. During this period the girl was subject to many restrictions, because it was believed that she was undergoing a powerful process which was potentially dangerous for herself and others. She was not allowed to look anyone in the face, for example, lest that person might die.

It was also thought that her behavior during these ten days would

influence her destiny throughout life, and this belief led to a number of specific restrictions. Touching her hair with her hands, for example, might cause it to fall out; eating hazelnuts would give her bad teeth; if she lied or acted cranky, she would always be an untruthful person or a mean one; and even just to stumble while walking was believed to cause bad luck in the future. Thus, the girl's behavior was highly circumscribed and closely attended by those around her. In this state of heightened self-awareness she endured the ten-day period without water and fasting on acorn soup taken once each day.

The ritual began with a ceremony in which the older woman blessed the bark skirt that the girl would wear for her ritual bathing.^[23] On this first night only the women dance, and on this occasion they beat time using hazel sticks such as those used for making basketry foundations.^[24]

The daily bathing routine was strenuous, and it has been described somewhat differently in our two main sources. Both state that the girl bathed twice daily (once at dawn and again towards evening), and both also note that she did not actually "bathe" but rather only threw water over each shoulder alternately in a certain manner. Sam Brown stated that this was done at seven different places along the river before running back up to the house (Golla, in press), and he also mentioned that the girl is teased by younger children throughout much of the ceremony. Goddard's account stresses the physical demands involved, stating that the girl had to run back and forth more than once between the river and the house, and also notes that she had to go for a load of wood after bathing (Goddard 1903-1904:53).

The public ritual was conducted on the second night, and the Hupa name for it means "first menses stick shaking." Goddard describes the ritual as follows:

The dance is held in the pit of the xonta.^[25] The girl, covered with a blanket, is placed in the northeast corner. Six men sit about the fire facing it. The first one has the broad woodpecker head-dress (such as worn in the Jump Dance). The next has a row of sea-lion teeth around his head, with the close-knitted kiseaqot hanging down his back. These head-dresses alternate around the circle. These men hold in their hands curiously shaped fiat pieces of wood. The other men wear caps. of buckskin with large bunches of trimmed feathers at the top. Long bands of buckskin, painted

in designs and terminating in a row of feathers, hang down the back. They carry in their hands sticks, five or more feet long and an inch and a half thick. These sticks are cut from syringa, Philadelphus lewisii . The top is split down about eighteen inches, making a number of parts which are worked down until they have plenty of room to rattle: the stick is painted in rings and has a fringe of bark left at some point.

Holding these sticks the men file in and stand in a close circle around the fire. The girl stands up but is covered with the blanket. The men sing a song, keeping time with their rattling sticks. When they have finished they march out, and the women, who have been sitting on the banks of the pit, sing songs of their own, tapping the girl with rattle sticks. The men return several times at intervals during the night and sing as at first. (Goddard 1903-1904:53-54)

Sam Brown's narrative corresponds rather closely to this description, but he also noted that the six men on the inner circle dance about the fire in a squatting posture, supported by short "walking sticks" that are held in their hands, They compete at this, mimicking animals; those wearing "hooks" imitate the movements of browsing deer,^[26] and those wearing woodpecker "rolls" gesture like the woodpecker itself (Golla, in press).

On the tenth and final night, the ceremony is more elaborate and continues all night long. On all previous nights, the girl has stayed in the corner of the pit, but in this final ritual she is brought out to the middle of the dance area and is seated there, facing east. A blanket is held over her head and the men sing a special dance-ending song while tapping the blanket with their stick rattles. Finally, the girl emerges for one last session in the river followed by other concluding rituals held outside the family house.

Flower Dance Songs^[27]

The musical style of Flower Dance songs is dramatically different from that of the other rituals described previously. The most obvious point of contrast is the musical texture, which is heterophonic and not polyphonic. This can be heard on two songs recorded by Margaret Woodward in 1953; in each of these examples, the accompanist (Jimmy Jackson) "trails" the soloist (Ewing Davis) and softly follows the line of the solo part with a sort of nasalized humming. This type of accompaniment was also noted as occurring in the

Brush Dance (example 9), but there it is only one of several options that occur and certainly not the most typical. In an actual Flower Dance, the accompanists would also mark each beat of the rhythm with their stick rattles, but this is not heard on the Woodward recordings.

Flower Dance songs are sung by men and women alike, and they are divided into two categories: heavy songs and light songs. The songs are said to have meaningful texts, often humorous or suggestive in character,^[28] but the recorded examples available to me were sung mainly in vocables. All these songs are quite brief in duration (average 40-50 seconds) and the songs are sung rather softly in a relaxed voice lacking any trace of the "sobbing" delivery heard in other genres.

The song transcribed in example 18 is presumed to be a heavy song because Mr. Sherman sang it first in the group I recorded and because of its relatively slow tempo. It seems to be sung only in vocables.

This song is quite brief and the form is somewhat less complex than that of the other genres considered previously; here a single phrase is sung twice (section I), and then the first half of the phrase is repeated several times (section II).^[29] In cantometrics terminology this would best be coded as a simple litany with moderate variation (Lomax 1968:58).

In other genres previously considered, the melodic range styles were generally quite wide, but the range of this Flower Dance song falls within a fifth. Moreover, the Flower Dance song is based upon a three-note scale, with much repetition of tones, and this tendency toward simpler scales is another characteristic that distinguishes the style from others described in chapters 5 and 6. Finally, one can always recognize a Flower Dance song by the ending pattern, which is sung softly in a falsetto voice.

The plain duple rhythm of example 18 is heard in other Flower Dance songs, but the one in example 19 is based on a sort of hemiola pattern. In this case melodic range (a major third) is even more narrow than that of the previous song, and again a three-note scale is used.

One example in this rather small corpus of Flower Dance songs was sung at a quicker tempo than the others. This presumably marks it as a light song, and the singer (Abraham Jack) identifies

Example 18.
Flower Dance song sung by Herman Sherman, Sr. (Hupa) and recorded 
by Richard Keeling in 1979.

Example 19.
Flower Dance song sung by Herman Sherman, Sr. (Hupa) and recorded 
by Richard Keeling in 1979.

it as a "hook-man's song" in a spoken cue on the tape. In other respects, example 20 is similar to the other men's Flower Dance songs notated above.^[30]

In the demonstration recordings collected by Margaret Woodward in 1953, Lucinda Jack (Hupa) sang three Flower Dance songs. These may indicate a distinctive female style of singing in the Flower Dance, but it is entirely possible that the differences evident in these few examples are coincidental or a matter of personal style.

Like the men's Flower Dance songs, those of Lucinda Jack are brief (average 40-50 seconds) and sung rather softly in a relaxed voice. A basic 4/4 meter seems to predominate. In contrast, however, these songs each employ an anhemitonic pentatonic scale and a slightly wider melodic range. Moveover, the melodic form of these examples is clearly more complex than that of the other Flower Dance songs considered above. The one transcribed in example 21 has a melody which is strophic in form and rather intricate in the symmetry of its design.

The strophic song in example 22 is more complex yet. Here a two-part phrase is sung twice (section I), and this is followed by a contrasting motive and a sequential variant of it (section II). The opening phrase has an anacrusis of two eighth notes, the next anticipates the bar-line by one eighth note, and the last phrase begins right on the beat. Unlike the more spontaneous and impulsive style heard (for example) in Brush Dance songs, this Flower Dance song

Example 20.
Flower Dance song sung by Abraham Jack (Hupa) and recorded 
by Mary Woodward in 1953.

Example 21.
Flower Dance song sung by Lucinda Jack (Hupa) and recorded 
by Mary Woodward in 1953.

Example 22.
Flower Dance song sung by Lucinda Jack (Hupa) and recorded 
by Mary Woodward in 1953.

gives the impression of being rather carefully calculated and precise in its delivery.

Finally, the song in example 23 is simpler and consists of two phrases standing in a sort of antecedent-consequent relationship. Still, there is a careful and static quality that distinguishes Mrs. Jack's Flower Dance songs from other forms of ritual music that have been discussed previously.

Example 23.
Flower Dance song sung by Lucinda Jack (Hupa) and recorded 
by Mary Woodward in 1953.

Stone of Weitchpec. Photo by Kroeber, 1907. (Courtesy Lowie Museum 
of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley)

Hupa White Deerskin Dance. Photo by Ericson, 1890s. (Courtesy Lowie 
Museum of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley)

Hupa White Deerskin Dance. From postcard dated 1912. (Courtesy Lowie 
Museum of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley)

Hupa White Deerskin Dance. Photo by Ericson, 1890s. (Courtesy Lowie 
Museum of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley)

Hupa White Deerskin Dance. Photo by Ericson, 1903. (Courtesy Lowie 
Museum of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley)

Robert Spott. (Courtesy Lowie Museum of Anthropology, 
University of California at Berkeley)

Hupa participants in the Jump Dance, held at the Yurok town of Pekwon. 
Photo by Ericson, 1893. (Courtesy Lowie Museum of Anthropology, 
University of California at Berkeley)

Domingo, with drum for gambling. Photo by Kroeber, 1906. (Courtesy 
Lowie Museum of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley)

Tree trimmed for firewood that was used in ritual 
sweathouse fire. (Courtesy Lowie Museum of 
Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley)