The stick employed for beating these drums is commonly a slender elastic wand about 2½ feet long, but they also sometimes use a short thick stick of ivory resembling that used by the eastern Eskimo.[506] We brought home two of these sticks, both of which belong with the drum No. 56743 [31]. Fig. 386a (No. 56540 [31]) is a roughly cylindrical rod of ivory with a hole for a lanyard. The larger end is ornamented by rudely incised and darkened lines which represent the eyes and outline of the mouth of a “bow-head” whale. Fig. 386b (No. 56540 [31a]) is a plain round stick of ivory 9.4 inches long. It is rather roughly made and somewhat warped. The use of the long stick is perhaps derived from Siberia, where the short thick stick does not appear to be used.[507]
Holes in the membrane of the drum are sometimes mended with pieces of the crop of the ptarmigan. At any rate, this is what I was told by a native, who begged from me the crops of two of these birds that I was skinning, saying that he wanted them to mend his drum. These drums are always beaten as an accompaniment to invocations of spirits or incantations. This practice is so common that some authors are in the habit of always speaking of them as “shaman drums”. As I have already stated, their most common use is purely as a musical instrument, and they are used not only by the so-called “shamans” but by everybody.
Fig. 386.—Ivory drumsticks.
[Character and frequency of music.]—
Their music consists of monotonous chants, usually with very little perceptible air, and pitched generally in a minor key. I could not perceive that they had any idea of “tune,” in the musical sense, but when several sang together each pitched the tune to suit himself. They, however, keep excellent time. The ordinary songs are in “common” or time.[508] The words are often extemporaneous, and at tolerably regular intervals comes the refrain, “A yáña yáña, a yáña ya,” which takes the place of the “ámna aja” of the eastern Eskimo. Sometimes, when they are humming or singing to themselves, the words are nothing but this refrain. Their voices, as a general thing, are musical.
Like all Eskimo, they are very fond of music, and are constantly singing and humming to themselves, sometimes, according to Capt. Herendeen, waking up in the night to sing. Besides their regular festivals they often amuse themselves in their houses by singing to the drum. They are fond of civilized music, and, having usually very quick and rather acute ears, readily catch the tunes, which they sing with curiously mutilated words. We found “Shoo Fly” and “Little Brown Jug” great favorites at the time of our arrival, and one old woman from Nuwŭk, told us with great glee, how Magwa (Maguire) used to sing “Tolderolderol.” Our two violins, the doctor’s and the cook’s, were a constant source of delight to them.
Capt. Parry[509] gives an excellent account of the music of the people of Fury and Hecla Straits.[510]
I regret extremely that I was not enough of a musician to write down on the spot the different tunes sung by these people. The ordinary monotonous chant is so devoid of air that I can not possibly recollect it, and the same is true of the chant which accompanies the game of pebble-tossing. I was able, however, to catch by ear the song sung by the children when they dance to the aurora. I never had the whole of this song, which we were told had a large number of stanzas. The first three are as follows: