DORSEYl CONCHDIXG KKMAKKS. 397 



Hanka. tliat have the sole right to slug the war smigs. timr may 

 show that these songs, which, -^vith their chart ot i>i( I'l^raplis. ai-e 

 used by the Osage, are substantially those of the sevt-ntli dcyree in 

 the Osage society. This is rendered the more probable by the fact 

 that the Kansa have grouped their gentes in seven pliratries, just 

 the number of the degrees in the society. And this arrangement l)y 

 sevens is the rule among Osage, Kansa. Punka. ( )niaha. and Dakota. 

 though there are ai)parent exceptions. 



Further investigation may tend to confirm the supptjsition that in 

 any tribe which lias mj^thic names for its members and its social di- 

 visions (as among the Osage. Kansa. Quapaw, Omaha. Ponka. Iowa, 

 Oto, Missouri. Tutelo. and Winnebago), or in one which has mythic 

 names only for its members and local or other names for its social 

 divisions (as among the Dakota. Assiniboin, Mandan. Hidatsa. and 

 Crow), there are now or there have been secret societies or ■•The 

 Mysteries. " 



'See the author's paper in the American Naturalist for ISS-i. entitled "Kansas 

 mourning and war customs," with which was published part of the chart mentioned 

 above. 



