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1162 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 7
Stanza II
cwuditin—At himself is looking
ceyAdi yel—That Raven,
'ican di yel—Pity the Raven,
The meaning is that the house post was carved like
a Raven, It drifted away when the sandbank fell down.
Then a Raven found it, hopped around it and walked
onto it, and looked down at the Raven carved on it.
Much of the meaning was conveyed by Mrs, Dick's
very expressive gestures.
The words as sung are:
A
B
C
D
E
F
Refrain
'a ha-ha ha ha ha-ha ha
'a ha-ha ha,
'i hi, 'i ya ha-hi hi, 'i hi hi,
'a hi ha ha, 'a ha-ha ha,
'a hi-ha ha, 'i hi he-ya, 'a-he he,
'e he-he he 'a ha-ha wa ha-ha.
Stanza I (sung twice)
A nalihahahaca—Drifted away.
B nalihaca—Drifted away.
C/ I'ew WAnu h^u-hu—Sand faUs,
D 'a ha-ha ha, 'a ha-ha ha.
E
F
'a ha-ha ha, 'i hi hi ya, 'a-he he
yu 'ay [on repeat]
'e he-he he 'a ha-ha ha ha,
(As before,)
A
B
C
D
E
F
Refrain
Stanza II (sung twice)
cAwuditihi 'inaha,—Looks at himself
cA(wu)ditina—Looks at himself
ceyAdi yeie he he-he,—That Raven.
'a ha-ha ha, 'a ha-ha ha,
'ican di yela,—Pity the Raven.
'i hi he-ya, 'a-ye he,
'e he-he 'a ha-ha [clears throat] 'a ha
ha ha mm [on repeat]
hutc '^wS!—"That's aU!" [spoken]
The structure of the melody is:
Refrain: A B C D E F
Stanza I: A B D E F (repeated)
c/
Refrain: A B
c
D E F
Stanza II: A B D E F (repeated)
c
McAllester comments on the chromatic rising pitch,
the great use of syncope, and the narrow range. Because
of the meter, it was one of the most difficult songs to
transcribe. The musical phrasing was obscure.
Unrecorded TluknaxAdi Mourning Song
A 'sad song' (tuwunik" datx ci) was composed by
two old ladies, Tl'ukna-ca, when the earth shook (1899),
and their uncles' coffins on Khantaak Island feU down.
This is sung as a sib mourning song at potlatches. The
only words obtained for the song are: 'His coffin broke
down' (dakEti kawawul).
TluknaxAdi JMourning Song, Composed by Dry Bay Chief George
1952, 1-1-A; recorded by Jack Reed on June 30,
This song was composed by Dry Bay Chief George,
Qawusa, (1850 ?-1916), probably for his potlatch at
Dry Bay in 1909.
It is introduced in broken English (1:40 minutes)
by the singer, who explains that he is singing it iu
memory of Roy BroAvn (1931-51), who was drowned
with a companion. Although K"ackqwan, Roy Brown
was reckoned a nephew to Jack Reed, Tl'uknaxAdi,
because Roy was the grandson of Peter LawTence
(1871-1950), and the latter was the half-brother (same
father but different Kagwantan mothers) of Jack
Reed's own father.
The song has two stanzas, separated by a refrain,
and is followed by a few remarks in Tlingit (total
time: 2 minutes), A phonograph record made from the
tape was played at the funeral feast for the singer
(1880-1935),
A few words of the song were recorded at the time of
the singing; most of the text was transcribed from the
tape, A free translation by Minnie Johnson is:
Stanza I
"It was your fault that I'm just crying and sobbing
to myself, O World."
Stanza II
"I wish you would hear my voice, that you would
hear me sorrowing, so you would come back alive,
as in the old time days."