﻿NO. I SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I925 II9 



task of recording the names of the wild plants known to the Osage 

 and their uses where they could he ascertained. This was out-door 

 work and more agreeable than the other. One day as the two were 

 driving over the hills, Ku-zhi-si-e called to his driver to stop. He 

 pointed to a patch of yellow flowers which he said were called 

 " ba-shta," hair-cut (Cone-Flower). This was the flower chosen 

 by the people of the Peacemaker gens to be their life and peace 

 emblem. The hair of the children of this gens was cut to resemble 

 the sacred flower as the sign of a petition to the Power that brought 

 it into existence, to grant the little one a long and fruitful life 

 (see fig. 114). They drove on to a small-wooded stream where there 

 were many aquatic plants. The ci" (Sagittaria latifolia), Ku-zhi-si-e 

 pointed' out as a food plant; the Mi-ke-thc (cattail), the leaves of 

 which he said were used to thatch houses as well as for medicine ; 

 the ga-chi"-ga, rush, (Elcocharis interstincta) , which was used for 

 making mats to sit upon in the house, and for making the inner 

 shrine of the sacred hawk. As the two drove along the border of 

 a small lake. Ku-zhi-si-e also pointed out the tsc'iva-thc (water 

 chinkapin), as a food plant. 



On the last day of the exploration, the two drove to the top 

 of a high hill where they stopped and got out of the car. After 

 a moment's silence, Ku-zhi-si^e gave a wide sweep of his right 

 arm and said, " All the grasses, weeds, shrubs, and trees that we 

 see around us as far as the eye can reach, are medicine, but we 

 know the qualities of only a few. Some plants like the gta-in-ga-hi 

 (persimmon tree) serve as medicine and food. There is life in 

 all plants and all are active. There are medicines for horses as 

 well as for human beings." 



STUDIES OF INDIAN MUSIC AMONG THE MENOMINI OF 



WISCONSIN 



In July and August, 1925, Miss Frances Densmore, collaborator 

 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, recorded the songs and 

 studied the musical customs of the Menomini Indians in Wisconsin. 

 Three classes of songs recorded among the Menomini have not been 

 found in other tribes. These are the songs connected with games 

 played as a "dream obligation," the songs of "adoption dances," 

 and the songs connected with the use of packs or bundles, by in- 

 dividuals, for the purpose of securing success on the himt or war 

 path. 



