90 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



2. Nikapd,sna (A skull or a bald head) . Members of this claD were reputed to 

 know "all about the human head," and as possessors of this knowledge were the 

 tribal barbers and hairdressers. They also cured headaches. It was taboo for 

 members of this clan to touch buckskin. 



3. -Dlxida (Blood). This clan performed imitative magic when the tribe was 

 unsuccessful in finding game. They pointed their arrows and pretended to shoot 

 some animal, saying at the same time "I'll shoot this fat one!" The -Dixida clan 

 also officiated at the ceremony of installation of chiefs. It was taboo for members 

 of this clan to touch either human blood or mice. 



4. Wasdbe (Meaning not known to my informants). The principal chief of the 

 tribe was always selected from this clan. Members were forbidden to touch the 

 head of any animal, since they were of the "head" (i.e., chiefly) clan. 



5. Mak4 (Medicine). This clan was reputed to contain the best herbalists in 

 the tribe. 



6. Nuxe (Ice). Members of this clan "knew all about water and ice" (PLC). 

 PLC told how the Northern Ponca chief White-shirt, a member of this clan, was 

 able to cross Ponca Creek on thin ice because of his special clan knowledge of the 

 properties of water and ice. 



7. Hisada (The stretching of a bird's leg when running) . PLC called this clan 

 the most important because its members were the tribal rainmakers. The rain- 

 making ceremony of this clan is described on page 75. 



8. Wd-ge-ziga (White men's sons). This eighth clan was added to the list by 

 LMD, who stated that he was a member of it and that it had been founded 

 to accommodate the sons of White traders who took Ponca wives. Like the other 

 Ponca clans, it was exogamous, although it had no clan rites or prerogatives. 

 One of its taboos was the same as a taboo of the i^ixida clan, not to touch mice. 

 If a member of either of these clans touched a mouse his hair would turn gray. 

 This clan may very possibly be the Waga clan of Morgan (see p. 87). 



OYB recounted an interesting legend to explain why the Wazdze 

 clan is divided into two subdivisions. According to this legend the 

 members of the clan were once conducting a tattooing ceremony. The 

 hereditary chief of the clan, who was conducting the rite, had finished 

 tattooing half of the members when an eagle flew out of the sky and, 

 in spite of a fusillade of arrows, entered the lodge and blinded the 

 chief by scratching his eyes out. The ceremony was thereupon dis- 

 continued. The members of the clan who had been tattooed before 

 this event thenceforth called themselves Wazdzexti (real or "complete" 

 Wazdze) while those who had not been tattooed called themselves 

 Wazdzexude (Gray Wazdze). This story is very interesting in that 

 one meaning of the term Wazdze is apparently "snake." The powers 

 of the air, symbolized by the thunderbird and eagle, continually wage 

 war with the powers of evil, symbolized by the underwater panther 

 and snake, in the mythologies of many North American Indian tribes. 

 OYB said that formerly all of the Ponca clans had been divided into 

 two or more subclans, but that these had been lost through time. 

 PLC, untU he heard this tale from OYB, had never heard of Ponca 

 clans being subdivided. 



Additional clan taboos, privileges, and duties, too numerous to in- 

 clude here, are found in the works of Dorsey (1894, pp. 381-382, 391, 

 411-412; 1897, pp. 214, 228-229); Fletcher (1896, p. 478); Fletcher 



