LA. FLBSCHB] 



RITE OF VIGII 



-FREE TRANSLATION. 



211 



We are commanded to go into the visible world, 

 He-thi'-sdu-zha, we are commanded to go forth. 



The theme of the tliird song is the abiding faith of the No°'-ho°- 

 zhi°-ga that the Mysterious Power will for all time continue the gift 

 of the buffalo which supplied the people plentifuU}' with food, shelter, 

 and clothing. "Wi-tsi-go," my grandfather, is repeatedly used in 

 this song, not as a term of relationship, but as an expression of rev- 

 erence and wonder at the mystery that involved the coming of tliis 

 form of life from the unseen to the visible world. 



The arrangement of the words and the stanzas implies an order in 

 which tliis animal proceeds from its mystic som-ce: First, the male; 

 second, the female; third, the little one; then the beginning of their 

 increase in number; and, finally, their spreading over the earth in 

 seven directions. 



This song corresponds in meaning to the second, the third, and the 

 foiu-th of the Omaha buffalo songs (27th Ann. Kept. B. A. E., pp. 

 291-295). 



Only two lines of each stanza are translated. 



Song 3. 

 (Osage version, p. 457; literal translation, p. 5S6.) 



M M J - 168 Transcribed by Alice C. Fletcher 



um.nnni. j'ln n I i^ 



Time beats ' > IT \ ' ' I ^^ 



Wi . tsi-go a-gi hi" da, wi - tsi-go a-gibi° da, Wi - 



t 



fe^ 



-: J. i' ' I I 



gi 



r 



r 



r r 



r 



r 



r 



tsi-go a-gi bi" da^ wi 



tsi-go a-gi bi" da. 



^ 



^^ 



' r r r 



r 



r ' r r 



ha 



do-ga no" a-gi bi" da, Do-ganon «• 



r r r r 



r r r 



gi bi" da, Wi-tsi-go a- gi bi" da 



ha. 



