The Native Races (Vol. 1-5). Hubert Howe Bancroft

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Название The Native Races (Vol. 1-5)
Автор произведения Hubert Howe Bancroft
Жанр Документальная литература
Серия
Издательство Документальная литература
Год выпуска 0
isbn 4064066387792



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arms are thrown into various attitudes to keep time with the music, very little use being made of the legs. On Queen Charlotte Islands the women dance at feasts, while the men in a circle beat time with sticks, the only instruments, except a kind of tambourine. For their dances they deck themselves in their best array, including plenty of birds' down, which they delight to communicate to their partners in bowing, and which they also blow into the air at regular intervals, through a painted tube. Their songs are a simple and monotonous chant, with which they accompany most of their dances and ceremonies, though Mackenzie heard among them some soft, plaintive tones, not unlike church music. The chiefs in winter give a partly theatrical, partly religious entertainment, in which, after preparation behind a curtain, dressed in rich apparel and wearing masks, they appear on a stage and imitate different spirits for the instruction of the hearers, who meanwhile keep up their songs.262

      MAGICIANS AND MEDICINE-MEN.

      HAIDAH BURIALS.

      THE NOOTKAS.