"The practical necessity of being preserved and handed on by word of mouth only, must be constantly borne in mind in considering the development of Indian verse forms. It operated to keep poetry tied to its twin-born melody, which assisted in memory, and was constantly at work modifying the native tendency to adjust the rhythm to every changing movement of the story." Bringing together the chants, songs and oral legends of Native American tribes from around the country, The Path on the Rainbow: An Anthology of Songs and Chants from the Indians of North America functions as an authoritative guide to Indigenous verse as untouched and uninfluenced by European colonialism in the early nineteenth century.
