Author: Truman MichelsonPublisher:
ISBN: 9781332235636
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
Excerpt from Contributions to Fox Ethnology II In the summer of 1926 I secured from an informant (whose name is withheld by agreement) a text written in the current Fox syllabary on the Buffalo dance of the Bear gens. Though this text is not as complete regarding certain details as desirable, and ends in the middle of a sentence, nevertheless it contains much information hitherto unknown; and the speech of Pa'citonigwa (p. 22 of the Indian text, p. 23 of the English translation) is one of the finest specimens of Fox oratory known to me. It is therefore distinctly worth publishing. Although, as stated above, the name of the Fox informant is withheld by agreement, it is no breach of confidence to say that he is the author of several Fox syllabic texts on gens festivals the phonetic restorations of which, as well as English translations thereof, I have previously presented (e. g., Observations on the Thunder Dance of the Bear Gens of the Fox Indians, Bull. 89, Bur. Amer. Ethn.), as well as a couple of Fox syllabic texts the English translations of which alone I have presented (Bull. 85, Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 97, 117). On the basis of the information furnished hitherto I consider the informant perfectly reliable. However, the present account contains a number of facts which can be definitely checked, besides the very obvious resemblance of the particular gens festival described to Fox gens festivals in general. First of all, I know that every person mentioned (with one possible exception) is a Fox Indian; that is, the names are not fictitious. Secondly, in practically all cases where the tribal dual division, or the gens, or the society is given in combination with the personal names, they can be substantiated. So John Bear (Ci'cigwana'sa) on page 15 is said to be a Ki'cko, which I know to be true from another source (cf. also Bull. 89, Bur. Amer. Ethn, p. 3). Similarly John Leaf (Ta'tapago'a) is said (p. 9) to be a member of the War Chiefs gens: which is corroborated by personal knowledge as well as by the statements of other informants. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
