18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 



In May, 1918, Mr. La Flesche visited the Osage Reserva- 

 tion for the purpose of completing his investigations of the 

 tattooing rite, which he had started some time ago, and 

 succeeded in securing 22 of the wi-gi-es (the recited parts) 

 from one man at a continuous sitting of two days — a remark- 

 able feat of memorizing. Each of these wi-gi-es belongs to 

 a gens of the tribe, the male members of which recite it at 

 an initiation into the mysteries of the rite or at the ceremony 

 of the actual tattooing. All of these wi-gi-es are recited 

 simultaneously by their owners, and the volume of sound 

 is like that of a responsive reading in a church, with the 

 difference that the reciting is not in unison, as each man 

 recites for himself independently of the others. Fourteen 

 of these wi-gi-es have been transcribed and translated, and 

 they cover about 100 pages of hand-written manuscript. 



Besides these 22 wi-gi-es, Mr. La Flesche secured the pen- 

 alty wi-gi-es owned exclusively by the Thunder gens. He 

 also obtained the penalty wi-gi-e owned in common by the 

 various gentes of the Tsi-zhu division and the one owned by 

 gentes of the Wa-zha-zhe and Ho°'-ga subdivisions of the 

 Ho"'-ga great division. These penalty wi-gi-es are recited 

 by their owners to the man who offers himself as a candidate 

 for initiation into the mysteries of either the fasting or the 

 shrine degree of the tribal rites. Like the "sword of Dam- 

 ocles," the penalty hangs over the head of the candidate and 

 drops upon him the moment he violates his initiation obli- 

 gations, and punishment comes to him by supernatural 

 means. These two wi-gi-es have been transcribed, but are 

 yet to be translated. 



While in the office Dr. Truman Michelson, ethnologist, was 

 engaged in correlating the Indian texts of the White Buffalo 

 Dance with the English translation, and revising the latter. 

 He left Washington near the middle of July and, arriving at 

 Tama, Iowa, resumed his field work among the Sauk and 

 Fox. His attention was mainly directed to the esoteric 

 meaning of the songs of the White Buffalo Dance, and to 

 verifying sociological work of the previous season. He 

 obtained the names of nine-tenths of the Fox Indians and 

 obtained information regarding the gens and dual divisions 



