ABSTRACT
Before considering this special development I will make two points on ontogenic dream songs. First, this notion asserts that a person came to know a song while dreaming. The song might logically have existed before that person encountered it, and hence we are actually discussing the origin of a song-insomeone’s-consciousness, not a song-in-the-universe. This is important throughout Native North America where dreams, or relatedly “visions,” were and are understood as means for humans to acquire songs as gifts from supernaturals. Presumably the supernaturals had the songs before, during, and after transmitting them to humans. Second, that a song was once dreamt does not mean that it is always dreamt, and specifically this does not preclude that songs could be transmitted between humans wakefully. Dreaming would be a one-way gate for songs from supernaturals to humans, who might keep the songs indefinitely.
