120 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 66 
rituals belonging to his gens, the Tsi’zhu Washtage. namely, the 
ceremonial naming of a child of the gens, and the initiation of a 
young man into the mysteries of the war rites. A portrait of 
Sho“gemo lr is here given (fie; 125): 
The ritual of the ceremonial naming of a child belonging to the 
Tsi‘zhu Washtage gens is the second ritual of this rite that Mr. 
La Flesche has succeeded in recording since commencing his study of 
the Osage tribe. The first obtained is the ritual used by the Puma 
gens, whose gentile function is to conduct the principal parts of the 
war ceremonies; the second ritual procured is that of the Tsi’zhu 
Washtage gens whose duty it is to take part in the ceremonies con- 
nected with the hunt. This gens is one of the two gentes to which 
belong the hereditary office of chief, and it is also a peacemaker gens. 
These two rituals of the child-naming ceremony comprise 107 type- 
written pages and will form a chapter in the forthcoming memoir 
on the Osage tribe. Many of the full-bloods still cling to the idea 
that a child who has not been ceremonially named has no place in 
the tribe as a person, and that it is only through the rights acquired 
at this naming that the child on attaining manhood can command 
the respect of other members of the tribe. In these child-naming 
rituals the gentile symbols are clearly set forth. 
The second ritual obtained during the year from Sho"’gemo"l", 
i. e., the initiation of a young man into the mysteries of the war rites, 
bears the title of No"zhmzho" Watho", which signifies, “ the fasting 
songs.” These relate to the rite of fasting which the chosen leader 
of a war party takes upon himself in order to excite the compassion 
of Wako"’da and thereby enlist the aid of that power in winning 
SUCCESS. 
The No™ho"zhi"ga of the Tsi’zhu Washtage gens always render 
their version of this ritual with an air of reluctance, the reasen being 
that the office of this gens is to protect life, even that of a caterpillar 
that happens to stray into the chief’s house. During the ceremonial 
approach to the Sacred House the song and the wi’gie sung and 
recited have no references to war or to valorous deeds, but to the 
path of life in which all must strive to travel in peace. In the 
No™zhi"zho", or fasting ritual, of the other gentes there is a wi’gie 
that explains the significance of the rattle used in the ceremony, 
one that relates strictly to war. But as it has to be included in the 
fasting rite of the Tsi’zhu Washtage gens, when they recite it they 
omit the authoritative refrain at the end of each line, a bi” da, tsi ga, 
(“it has been said, in this house’’), for the reason that war was not 
taught in the Sacred House of the Tsi’zhu Washtage; but as the 
