[Indian Games and Dances with Native Songs by Alice C. Fletcher]@TWC D-Link book
Indian Games and Dances with Native Songs

INTRODUCTION
13/50

When the refrain closes, the dead leaves and twigs are supposed to be gathered into heaps ready to be burned.
2 See the fire send its "word of flame" mounting high, Now the smoke rolls about the earth, shuts out sky.
_Refrain_: Ah hey they, Ah hey hey they, Ah hey they ha! Ah hey they, Ah hey hey they, Ah hey they ha! The action for this stanza should indicate the heat of the fire; shielding the face, pushing back stray leaves or twigs to the burning heap; the rolling smoke follows the dancers, who here and there try to escape it.
This scene will require study to bring out the picture rhythmically.

It should form a contrast to the preceding and the following scene, in both of which the movements are more or less uniform.

In this scene groups should emphasize certain conditions: the fire, the smoke, the work of keeping the heaps together, so that the picture will be one of action diverse to a degree and yet every movement dominated by the rhythm of the song; the picture will thus be made a unit.
3 Mellow earth, make the little, hills smooth on top, On the earth softly the kernels we drop.
_Refrain_: Ah hey they, Ah hey hey they, Ah hey they ha! Ah hey they, Ah hey hey they, Ah hey they ha! In the action of this stanza the seven dancers in the front row make seven ceremonial hills, mellowing the earth with the wooden hoes and gathering it into little hills made smooth on top.

The pouches are swung to the front, the corn taken out with one hand while the other holds the hoe at rest, and the kernels are dropped on the softened earth.

The dancers should be careful to remember that in the ceremonial row of seven hills but one kernel is to be dropped in the first hill, two in the second, and so on up to seven in the seventh hill.


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