As usual, the song scheme serves also as a synopsis of the narrative. I have therefore organized it by introducing captions. It is evident from this outline that only about three of the thirty-odd sections contain vigorous plot such as is the usual content of myths and tales in cultures of the same general level as the Mohave. These are sections [14] and especially [15] and [32]. If to these are added the first and last one or two brief sections, to give the heroine an origin and an end, we have about the equivalent of what most American tribes would use to make a tale. The remaining sections, nearly thirty, are Mohave filling, or prolixity, dispensable incidents which make the story run slower but give opportunity to build up the singing into a long series, a real cycle, corresponding to a ritual among other tribes. This song association is presumably the cause of the dilatory narration; though it is also clear that the Mohave like the strung-along episodes for their own sake, and maintain the habit even when the narrative is unaccompanied by songs, as in the Mastamho myth and Great Tale.
The difference in manner, according as interest in plot or in song themes prevails, is shown by the fact that the three paragraphs mentioned ([14], [15], [32]) take up about three-tenths of the length of the narrative, but have only one-tenth of the songs referring to them. That is, Mohave singing is far from really dramatic. Its text tends to be pensive, subjective, reflective on incidents. When the action becomes eventful, tense, or critical, the songs become few, or drop out, until the flow of the narrative quiets again.
From one to four of the songs of each of the groups were phonographically recorded in cylinders catalogued as 14-228 to 14-269 in the University of California Museum of Anthropology. The correspondence of these phonograms to the sections of the narrative is as follows:
| Sections | Phonograms |
| [1] | 228-230 |
| [2] | 231 |
| [4-7] | 232-235 |
| [9-12] | 236-239 |
| [14-23] | 240-249 |
| [25-32] | 250-257 |
| [33] | 258, 264-266 |
| [34] | 259, 267-269 |
| [35] | 260-263 |
That is, all the songs pertaining to the first section and the three last sections were recorded; but only the first of each group of songs for the other sections.
IV. RAVEN
This song-myth was recorded near Needles on March 19, 1903, from Pamitš, "Weeping Person," a middle-aged man of the Sun-fire-deer-eagle clan, who call their daughters Nyo'iltša (or Nyôrtša after they have lost a child). Jack Jones interpreted. The story has been previously outlined and discussed in Handbook of the California Indians, page 761, and some songs given on page 758. It was there characterized as "a curious tale within a tale, if it can be called a story at all. The [boy] heroes do nothing but move thirty feet, sing all night, and disappear [as ravens] at daybreak. What they sing of is what any Mohave would be likely to sing of if he sat up. The story is thus but a pallid reflection of the conventional subjects of Mohave singing." This judgment is confirmed by the outline of songs given below.
While Raven is said by the Mohave to be sung at celebrations and to refer to war, along with Tumanpa, Vinimulye, and Nyohaiva, it differs from the last two of these—which have just been given—in that these contain actual narratives of fighting as the central theme of the plot; whereas Raven merely sings of war customs in the abstract. There is also no travel in Raven, except mental travel. Tumanpa is like Raven in that it has no war story; like Vinimulye and Nyohaiva in that there is journeying; and is peculiar—especially for a war and festival song-cycle—in that its formal theme is incest.