62 THE OSAGE TRIBE Ieth. ann. 36 



called Ni'-ki-c, The Words of the Ancient Men, where the wi'-gi-es 

 will be found in full (pp. 195-197). These two wi'-gi-es are also used 

 in a certain part of the Wa-sha'-be A-thi", a war ceremony that will 

 appear in a later volume, where it is intimateil that the Wa-zha'-zhe 

 also presented a ceremonial pipe to the Tsi'-zhu. The narrator of the 

 foregoing paraphrase offered no information concerning the part of 

 the Tsi'-zhu in this council of alliance, as he was not a member of 

 that division. 



At the time of this council the people of the three groups gave to 

 the Ho^'-ga U-ta-no°-dsi a house which they called fsi' Wa-ko^-da-gi, 

 House of Mysteries. Both the house and its fireplace they conse- 

 crated to ceremonial uses and made them to represent the life-giving 

 earth. To this House of Mysteries were to be brought all the infants 

 of the four groups to be ceremonially fed u])on the sacred foods of life 

 that they might arrive safely at the age of maturity, and the children 

 were here to be given their gentile names in order to take their estab- 

 lished places in the tribal organization. 



The council at this time also established another house, fsi' Wa-ko"- 

 da-gi. House of Mysteries, which they called Ho°'-ga fsi, and placed it 

 in the keeping of the Wa-pa'-be gens of the Ho°'-ga group. In this 

 house were to be performed the ceremonies that pertain to war. 

 Within its fireplace, which was called Ho'-e-ga, Snare, were placed 

 four stones, arranged at the cardinal points, one for each of the four 

 winds. Upon these four stones was placed the Tse'-xe Ni-ka-po, a 

 caldron for the boiling of certain plants that represented certain per- 

 sons belonging to enemy tribes. 



When the Tsi'Wa-ko°-da-gi of the Wa-?a'-be gens and its fireplace 

 had been consecrated, each of the gentes of the four groups placed 

 within the house its life symbol. This statement is not meant to be 

 understood in a literal sense, as some of the gentile life symbols are 

 of the great objects in nature, such as the sun, moon, stars, earth, 

 while there are others that are intangible, as the day, the night, and 

 the sky. Therefore the act of placing the sacred life symbols in the 

 House of Mysteries was represented by the reciting of the wi'-gi-es 

 that relate to these various sacred life symbols. 



These four warrior groups conducted both the war and huntmg 

 movements of the people, and no one group could act independently 

 of the others. A war party thus ceremonially organized by all of 

 these four groups was called Do-do°'-hi°-to°-ga, War Party in Great 

 Numbers. 



After living for a long period of time under this form of government 

 the people were again seized with a desire to "move to a new country " 

 (a term expressive of a slow movement that preceded a change in the 

 government of the tribe). It was while the tribe was in the "new 



