[Footnote 32:  The word “squat” in Passamaquoddy means fire.  Mrs. Brown spells the name of the swamp woman as follows:  Squaw-oc-t’moos.  The a is very long, and possibly can be best represented by aw.]

One of the songs, said to be a salutation, which was sung on the cylinders, has been written out from the phonograph by the late Mr. S.P.  Cheney.  The words, as nearly as I can make them out, are as follows:—­

    T’w[=a] too boo hen ee too boo ho [to be way] bla
    Tel ey wees ee lu
    Hoi kay yu kar, heno yah ha,
    Kaye yu kar, hen o yar-hah,
    Kay yu kar, hen o yah-hah, kay yu kar, hen o yar-hah.

The first two lines are sung first to the upper staff, then repeated to the music on the second, which differs somewhat from the first.  Then follows the third and fourth lines, which are sung to the third staff, and repeated with slight variation from the fourth.

[Music illustration: 

T’w[=a] too boo hen ee too boo ho bla tel ey wees ee lu

Hoi kay yu kar, hen-o yah ha, kay e yu kar hen o yar-hah.]

The question of whether the Indians originally had characters to designate tones has been discussed by Theodor Baker ("Ueber die Musik der Nord Amerikanischen Wilden").  Although the Micmacs seemed to have had an elaborate system of hieroglyphics[33] to designate sounds, neither they nor their immediate neighbors, according to Vetromile, had characters to designate tones.  The songs were probably committed to memory, and possibly on that account were often somewhat modified.

[Footnote 33:  Pictographic writing, which is so well known among the Micmacs, was also practised by the Passamaquoddies.  The sign of the Passamaquoddies is a canoe with two Indians in it and a porpoise.  This sign appears on rocks in certain places.  The design for the present flag of this tribe is of late conception, and shows the Christian influence.]

The cylinder with Passamaquoddy words and the English equivalents has the following records, which I have written down as nearly as I could from the phonograph, and verified by repeating them from my spelling to the Indians.  With two exceptions, the Indians, were able to understand the word meant, and to give me an English equivalent identical with that originally recorded.  I have made these experiments of verification in order to test the capabilities of the phonograph.  In the cases where my spelling of the word has failed to convey the sound of the word, the phonograph was perfectly understood by the Indian interrogated.  This fact seemed to me to bring out a serious defect in the use of the phonetic method, which may not be confined to me alone.  I doubt very much if the Indians could understand many of the words in some of the vocabularies of other Indians which have been published, if the words were pronounced as they are spelled.  The records of the phonograph, although of course sometimes faulty, are as a general thing accurate.  When I wrote out the Passamaquoddy words given below, I was wholly ignorant of their meaning.  I wrote them as I heard them on the cylinder, placing at their side the English equivalent.  I then pronounced the word to an Indian, and he gave the same English word which I had myself written from the phonograph:—­