DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42067#0344
304
Literature, music, and dance
the art of native narrative. The difficulty of phonetic rendering of
foreign languages requires such slowness of dictation that the artistic
style necessarily suffers. The number of collectors who possess
complete mastery of the languages of the natives is altogether too
small. The best approximation to the art of narrative of primitive
people is probably found in those cases in which educated natives
write down the texts, or in the records taken down by missionaries
who in long years of personal, intimate contact with the people have
acquired complete control of their language, and who are willing to
give us just what they hear.
As an example of the difference in style between the free render-
ing of a story told in English by an interpreter, and the translation
of a native text I give part of the Twin-Hero story of Sia, as
told by M. C. Stevenson, and the same story as dictated to me in
Laguna. Mrs. Stevenson1 tells as follows: Upon visiting the plaza
the twins found a large gathering and the housetops were crowded
with those looking at the dance. The boys who approached the
plaza from a narrow street in the village, stood for a time at the
entrance. The one remarked, “I guess all the people are looking at
us and thinking we are very poor boys; see how they pass back
and forth and do not speak to us;” but after a while he said, “We
are a little hungry; let us walk around and see where we can find
something to eat.” They looked in all the houses facing upon the
plaza and saw feasting within, but no one invited them to enter
and eat, and though they inspected every house in the village, they
were invited into but one. At this house the woman said, “Boys,
come in and eat; I guess you are hungry.” After the repast they
thanked her, saying, “It was very good.” Then the one said, “You,
woman, and you, man,” addressing her husband, “you and all your
family are good. We have eaten at your house; we give you many
thanks; and now listen to what I have to say. I wish you and all
your children to go off a distance to another house; to a house
1 Matilda Coxe Stevenson, The Sia, 11th Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology,
Washington, 1894, pp. 54—55.
Literature, music, and dance
the art of native narrative. The difficulty of phonetic rendering of
foreign languages requires such slowness of dictation that the artistic
style necessarily suffers. The number of collectors who possess
complete mastery of the languages of the natives is altogether too
small. The best approximation to the art of narrative of primitive
people is probably found in those cases in which educated natives
write down the texts, or in the records taken down by missionaries
who in long years of personal, intimate contact with the people have
acquired complete control of their language, and who are willing to
give us just what they hear.
As an example of the difference in style between the free render-
ing of a story told in English by an interpreter, and the translation
of a native text I give part of the Twin-Hero story of Sia, as
told by M. C. Stevenson, and the same story as dictated to me in
Laguna. Mrs. Stevenson1 tells as follows: Upon visiting the plaza
the twins found a large gathering and the housetops were crowded
with those looking at the dance. The boys who approached the
plaza from a narrow street in the village, stood for a time at the
entrance. The one remarked, “I guess all the people are looking at
us and thinking we are very poor boys; see how they pass back
and forth and do not speak to us;” but after a while he said, “We
are a little hungry; let us walk around and see where we can find
something to eat.” They looked in all the houses facing upon the
plaza and saw feasting within, but no one invited them to enter
and eat, and though they inspected every house in the village, they
were invited into but one. At this house the woman said, “Boys,
come in and eat; I guess you are hungry.” After the repast they
thanked her, saying, “It was very good.” Then the one said, “You,
woman, and you, man,” addressing her husband, “you and all your
family are good. We have eaten at your house; we give you many
thanks; and now listen to what I have to say. I wish you and all
your children to go off a distance to another house; to a house
1 Matilda Coxe Stevenson, The Sia, 11th Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology,
Washington, 1894, pp. 54—55.