542 A STUDY OF SIOUAN CULTS. 



NAMES DERIVED FROM SEVERAL HOMOGENEOUS OB.TECTS OR BEINGS. 



An examiuation of the personal uaiiie lists reveals sucli names as 

 First or One Grizzly-bear, Two Grizzly-bears, Three Grizzly-bears, 

 Four Grizzly-bears, Many Grizzly-bears ; One Path, Two Paths, Four 

 Paths Female, Many Paths; One Cloud, Two Clouds, Three Clouds, 

 Many Clouds; One Crow, Two Crows, Thi-ee Crows, Four Crows, 3Iany 

 Crows. The author suspects that these names and many others of a 

 similar character are symbolic of the four quarters and of the upper 

 and lower worlds, and that the Indian who was named after the larger 

 number of mystic objects enjoyed the protection of more spirits than 

 did he whose name referred to the smaller number. This accords with 

 the Cherokee notion described by Mr. Mooney in his article on the 

 Cherokee theory and practice of medicine : ' The shaman is represented 

 as calling first on the Red Hawk from the east, then on the Blue Hawk 

 in the north, the two hawks accomplishing more by working together. 

 Still more is effected when the Black Hawk from the west joins them, 

 and a complete victory is won when the White Hawk from the south 

 joins the others. 



Compare with this the Osage opinion that the man who could show 

 seven sticks (representing seven brave or generous deeds) was of more 

 mportance than he who could show only six sticks. 



! RETURN OF THE SPIRIT TO THE EPONYM. 



§ 395. In two of the buffalo gentes of the Omaha (the Inke-sab6and 

 Hauga) there is a belief that the spirits of deceased members of those 

 gentes return to the buffaloes. Does the abode of the disembodied 

 spirit differ in the gentes according to the nature of the eponymic 

 ancestor? For instance, is there a belief among the Elk people that 

 their spirits at death return to the ancestral Elk ? 



FUNCTIONS OF GENTES AND SUBGENTES. 



§ 396. In several tribes there seeins to have been a division of labor 

 among the gentes and subgentes, that is, each social division of the 

 tribe had its sx^ecial religious duties. 



In the Omaha tribe we find the following : the Elk gens regulated 

 war; it kept the war tent, war pipes, and the bag containing poisons; 

 it invoked the Thunder-being, who was supposed to be the god of war, 

 and it sent out the scouts. The liike-sabe and Hafiga gentes were the 

 leading peace gentes; they regulated the buffalo hunt and the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil. The Hauga gens had the control of the peace pipes, 

 and a memberof that gens lighted the pipes on all ceremonial occasions 

 except at the time of the anointing of the sacred pole.'* The Inke-sabg 

 gens kept the jieace pipes, and a member of that gens acted as crier on 



' Jonr. Am. Folklore, Vol. in, No. viii, pp. 49, 50. 

 »0m. Soc, in 3d An. Rept. Bur. Ethn., pp. 222,223. 



