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Invocation, by Edward Curtiss [1917] (Public Domain Image)

The Path on the Rainbow:

An Anthology of Songs and Chants from the Indians of North America

Edited by George W. Cronyn

[1918]


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This anthology of Native American poetry, song and ritual, presents texts from a wide range of culture areas. The translations are largely based on work by anthropologists, and all reflect genuine Native American lore. These poems come from a place in which magic, art and ritual are indistinguishable. They reflect an archaic consciousness which comes close to the Homeric or Indian epics in which gods walk the earth, magic is alive, and animals are just as human as you or me. To read these texts is to be absorbed back into that consciousness.--J.B. Hare


Title Page
Contents
Early Moon
Introduction
Songs From The Eastern Woodlands: Abanaki Songs
Vengeance Song (Micmac)
Iroquois Ritual
Fire-Fly Song (Ojibwa)
Calling-One's-Own (Ojibwa)
Ojibwa War Songs
Two Winnebago Songs
Sacred Midé Songs (Ojibwa)
Songs of the Chippewa
Memorial Ode (Iroquois)
The Wallum Olum (Delaware)
Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees
Hunting Songs (Dakota)
The Fashioning of the Children (Osage)
Ritual Chants of the Omaha
Songs of the Ghost Dance Religion
Viracocha (Ancient Inca)
War Songs (Zuni)
Invocations for Rain (Sia)
Magpie Song (Navajo)
Songs in the Garden of the House God (Navajo)
The Mountain Chant of the Navaho
The Town Crier Calls at Dawn (Pueblo)
Song of the Horse (Navajo)
Song of the Blue-Corn Dance (Zuni)
Songs of the Pima
Song of the Earth (Navajo)
Hunting Song (Navajo)
Song of the Rain Chant (Navajo)
Song From the Mountain Chant (Navaho)
Corn-Grinding Song
Korosta Katzina Song (Hopi)
He-Hea Katzina Song (Hopi)
Songs of Spirits (Wintu)
Songs of Kumastamxo (Yuma)
Prayers of the Tsimshian
Three Songs from the Haida
Bear Song (Haida)
Haida Cradle Songs
Bilqula Death Song
Songs of the Tlingit
Spell Song
Chinook Songs
Songs for the Great Feast to the Dead
Eskimo Songs
Sednor and the Fulmar (Eskimo Ballad)
Summer Dawn
Song of the Search
Song of Whip-Plaiting
Song of the young Mother
Song of Basket-Weaving
The Change Song
Song of the Full Catch
Spring to the Earth-Witch
Chief Capilano Greets his Namesake at Dawn
The Wild Woman's Lullaby
Indian's Lover's Hymn
The Song of the Hills (Yokut)
Neither Spirit nor Bird (Shoshone)
Prayer to the Mountain Spirit (Navaho)
Song for the Passing of Beautiful Women (Paiute)
Song of a Passionate Lover (Yokut)
The Heart's Friend (Shoshone)
A Song in Time of Depression (Paiute)
Along the South Star Trail
Sa-a Narai
Earth-Mother
Feast of Wolves
Lone-Dog Unto the Delawares
Listening
Buffalo Dance
Where the Fight Was
The Wind
Courtship
Parting
The Lost Lagoon (Tekashionweke)
The Song my Paddle Sings (Tekashionweke)
Plem-Sali-Kwi (Autumn Dawn)
(A Pawnee Ceremony)