It is independent of, and
different from, both pitch and rhythm; it is the texture of the
music itself.
The "timbre" of a people's stories tells of the qualities of that
people's heart. It is the texture of the thought, independent of
its form or fashioning, which tells the quality of the mind from
which it springs.
In the "timbre" of these stories of the Sioux, told in the lodges
and at the camp fires of the past, and by the firesides of the
Dakotas of today, we recognize the very texture of the thought of
a simple, grave, and sincere people, living in intimate contact and
friendship with the big out-of-doors that we call Nature; a race
not yet understanding all things, not proud and boastful, but
honest and childlike and fair; a simple, sincere, and gravely
thoughtful people, willing to believe that there may be in even the
everyday things of life something not yet fully understood; a race
that can, without any loss of native dignity, gravely consider the
simplest things, seeking to fathom their meaning and to learn their
lesson--equally without vain-glorious boasting and trifling
cynicism; an earnest, thoughtful, dignified, but simple and
primitive people.
To the children of any race these stories can not fail to give
pleasure by their vivid imaging of the simple things and creatures
of the great out-of-doors and the epics of their doings.
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