Page 113 - TheHopiIndians

MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND 105

chants, and to the listener some of the motives seemed
quite equal to those upon which Handel built his
great oratorios.
It is a pity that the many beautiful songs of Tusa-
yan cannot be written down and preserved but this
will no doubt soon be accomplished. Perhaps some
genius like Liszt who gave the world the spirit of Hun
garian folk-music will arise to ravish our ears with
these musical expressions passed down from aboriginal
American sweet singers.
While the music which most attracts our attention
in Hopiland is that of the various ceremonies, there is
still a cycle of songs, many in number, of love, war,
or for amusement; those sung by mothers to their
infants, or shrilled by the women grinding corn. The
men sing at their work, the children at their play in
this land of the Song Makers.
If songs are numerous beyond computation among
the Hopi there are also more games conducing to
their amusement than one finds among many other
tribes. One may surmise that these games have been
brought in by the clans that came from all points of
the compass to make up the Hopi, and who must have
touched elbows with other tribes of different lineage
during the wanderings. All games seem to have been
borrowed, and no one may, in the light of present
knowledge, say when, where, and by whom any one of
the typical games was invented, any more than the
father of a proverb or a joke may have the parentage
ascribed to him.