REPORT ON THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 49 



"Wa-sha-be" is here used as a trope for the charcoal that symbolizes 

 the merciless fire. The making of the symbolic charcoal forms an 

 important part of the great ceremony and each warrior is required to 

 carry with him a piece of this charcoal tied up in a little buckskin 

 pouch. When he is about to attack the enemy he must blacken his 

 face with this charcoal. If he happens to neglect this he will not be 

 permitted to recount the strokes he may deliver the enemy in the 

 attack and to count his war honors. 



Originally there was only one " Wa-sha-be A-thi n " ceremony and 

 this ceremony pertained strictly to defensive and aggressive war- 

 fare. Later this ceremony was employed for organizing a war part} 7 

 to be sent out to slay some member of an enemy tribe in order to send 

 the spirit of the slain man to overtake and accompany the spirit of 

 the deceased member of the tribe and to be his companion to the 

 realm of spirits. 



The original ceremony was described by Wa-xthi-zhi, who belongs 

 to the great division of the tribe which represents the earth and is 

 called Ho n -ga. The ceremony, when it is used as a mourning rite, 

 was described by Xu-tha-wa-to n -i n , a member of the great division 

 representing the sky, and called Tsi-zhu. 



The account of these two ceremonies, the text, the songs, with 

 their music, the recited parts of the ritual, and the illustrations and 

 diagrams cover 253 pages. 



It required much time as well as the exercise of patience to secure 

 the details of these war ceremonies. Particularly was this true of 

 the wi-gi-es (the recited parts) , which relate to the traditions of the 

 people, on account of their religious character and the superstitious 

 awe with which the men and women of the tribe regarded them. 

 Deaths have occurred during the study of these rites, and these deaths 

 have been by the people attributed to the reciting of the rituals 

 without regard to the traditional and prescribed rules. 



In May, 1918, Mr. La Flesche visited the Osage Reservation for 

 the purpose of completing his investigations of the tattooing rite, 

 which he had started some time ago, and succeeded in securing 22 

 of the wi-gi-es (the recited parts) from one man at a continuous 

 sitting of two days — a remarkable feat of memorizing. Each of these 

 wi-gi-es belongs to a gens of the tribe, the male members of which 

 recite it at an initiation into the nrysteries of the rite or at the cere- 

 mony of the actual tattooing. All of these wi-gi-es are recited simul- 

 taneously by their owners, and the volume of sound is like that of a 

 responsive reading in a church, with the difference that the reciting 

 is not in unison, as each man recites for himself independently of 

 the others. Fourteen of these wi-gi-es have been transcribed and 

 translated, and they cover about 100 pages of hand-written manu- 

 script. 



