Music of Acoma, Isleta, Cochiti, and Zuñi Pueblos - Flutopedia.com

70 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 165
Analysis.—The form of this is the same as the form of other corn-grinding
songs, but period B is developed from the latter portion of period A. As in several
other songs of the series, there is a slight difference in one measure about midway
through period A when it is repeated and also when it follows period B, the same
change occurring in both instances.
Such changes are not important to the structure
of the melody but appear to be intentional and, in this series, occur at about
the same point in the phrase, in a measure of somewhat monotonous rhythm.
The principal interval is a minor third, next in frequency being major thirds and
whole tones.
WAR SONGS
The people at Isleta are said to believe that the spirit of a dead
person wanders about and attaches itself to any part of its former
body that it is able to reach. Thus the warrior believed that he
brought home the spirit of his slain enemy with the scalp. The
spirit was not malicious, as among the Papago, who believe that
certain illnesses are caused by the spirits of slain Apache (Densmore,
1929 a, pp. 101-114).
Lucero said that his grandfather was a warrior and was one of the
men who were "authorized to remove the scalps of the enemy." The
method of removing a scalp was therefore known to Lucero, who said
the oldtime warriors had an iron implement which they heated
and used in burning a line around the entire mass of hair on the
enemy's head. The body was laid face downward and little vertical
cuts were made in the scalp at the back of the head. The man
removing the scalp then "took both hands to it" and "the scalp
came off with one pull."
After the warriors returned they tied each scalp at the end of a
long pole and carried it in the Scalp dance. It was not inside a
hoop at the end of a pole, as among northern tribes; neither was it
carried by women. It was said that Pueblo women were kind and
domestic and "were not allowed to kill even a bug. If such an act
were necessary the woman summoned her husband to perform it."
The informant stated, however, that the women at Isleta joined the
men in the circle at the Scalp dance. There was a fire in the middle
of the circle and, according to available information, the dance
seems to have been held near the entrance to the kiva. The songs of
this dance were not recorded.
The motion of the Scalp dance was a step forward, then a step
backward. The men danced with blankets around them and their
arms in any desired position, but the women danced with hands
shghtly above the level of the elbows and with the palms of the hands
held upright and forward. They moved their hands slightly up and
down in this position." Seated around the drum were the singers
•1 The same position was assumed by women dancers at Neah Bay during the "honor songs." (Cf.
Densmore 1939, pi. 21, a, 6, /.)
The writer has not observed the custom in any other tribe.