Indian lyric poetry has, we have noted, the qualities of oral verse. It employs a number of devices to mark off rhythmic units: stress, accent, range in pitch, quantity, and effort in enunciation. Stress and the higher pitch coincide almost universally. The dramatic and the musical influence require some use of quantity. Aside from its main use in the tag ending of verse or stanza when stress is not used for that purpose, effort in enunciation appears to be an accidental rhythmic element, depending upon the use of the high, close vowels, as _e_, and the aspirated, closed, and guttural consonants. It is, therefore, least useful when it coincides with the other devices of rhythm—lost, as it must be, in the use of stress. Indian poetry makes a sharp distinction, it must be observed, between accent and stress, the latter requiring definite bodily effort, even explosive enunciation. The oral rendition of a poem brings us to some unexpected turns in versification. A scholar observes that one must have an Indian throat to sing these songs. This physical control is two fold: unique control of the breathing and contraction or pulsation of the glottis, especially in measures of unusual length. In Indian verse, there is a lengthening of the metrical unit beyond the ordinary limits of European verse in feet of six, seven, eight, and nine syllables, with but one syllable prominent in stress, pitch, or quantity. The Indian sings and speaks on for hours without apparent weariness. The elemental two and three syllabled feet appear universally in Indian poetry, but commonly in phrases with the longer feet of five to nine syllables, as in the _Pledge Song_ of the Chippewa: _nín-da-ca-mi-gog_ | _éya_. Another pattern has the recurring metrical phrase of three, six, and five syllables: _í e ba_ | _bá-pi-ni-si-wa-gûn_ | _gé-non-de-ci-nan_. A rhythmic group of five and one may be varied by the substitution of a three syllabled and a two syllabled measure for that of five syllables. A song may carry a two syllabled rhythm consistently, even when all repetitions of line are disregarded: O-kú-wah-tsá, úm weh dah án, Hang wén bo wú u wán moon pí, Han wán bo hí wut di ún wéh dah án, É yan ne _yá_ ah né yáh na án. Ah é yan ne yáh ah né yáh na án.