Wintu – About Songs

One recording in which Mr Wintu Mossang talks about the origin of the Wangshi, Wihuex and Shammax Shi. This consists of one sound file: nst-mos_20121111_04_SM_T_Wintu_AboutSongs The details of this recording are as follows: nst-mos_20121111_04_SM_T_Wintu_AboutSongs_Duration 3’01”, About the origin of the Wangshi, Wihuex and Shammax Shi. Wihuex Shi came from beyond the eight layers of the sky (lap tvtsvt). (He said that he couldn’t sing it because When we open the first layer of the sky we see rangtse shawxdezdez which means red red thing; When we come through to the second layer we will see white clouds (phuemx luez) and black clouds (phuemx nyauk); if we open the third layer we will see the twinkling of the stars (rueysuieq rueysawx) – but only by singing the words will come which will express the other five layers. Wangshi came from the beyond the eight layers of the rock (lung jung lap tvchet). While going through each layer the singing would find whatever would be needed for his attire. The first layer would be a kind of wooden drum (karxkuex nungx) made from the karxkuex tree. The second layer would be raungwaz kasan jaungz ‘sky father’s knife / dao’. This is what is used for the sacrifice. The third layer would be wuzlap ‘feather of the hornbill’. Beyond that he could not tell without singing the song. Shamma Shi came from just nearby; came from the foothill of the mountain (mueuq). From beyond or behind a big stone lungzkunxkaq. [in spoken language this would be lungzyungxyaz.] After crossing that we would find nyaproz plantation (the leaf that is used for packaging rice). The third was khokruimxroz which is another kind of plant somewhat like turmeric that is used in sacrifice. After that the fourth stage was a thread made from a plant and it is called ruiybanc jungx [cuŋ] (The red flower is called tsungkix, but in song language tsungsanx). [While singing the Shamma song, the singing will feel that he/she is actually extracting the bark of the ruiybanc and tying it on the hand of someone. While they sing Even though the bark of this plant is not so much, while singing they would pull and pull and it would become very long. Wanglung remembers seeing this in a song performed by Womlung’s elder brother in Wanglung’s own house.