FLETiHEH] INCIDENTAL RITUALS 3(>5 



Mr Murie spent thrci^ days in tlie Iranslalion and study of the 

 ritual, assisted by the Kuialius, who explained many points that 

 were somewhat obscure, owing to elisions, the emploj'ment of a single 

 word as a mnemonic to call up tiie picture of a complicated action, 

 and the forcing of words to a different application from thai of ordi- 

 nary speech — a not uncommon occurrence in rituals. Thv latter 

 carefully watched the work lest mistakes should be made, remarking 

 that the ritual "speaks of the powers above, of wliom man should l)e 

 careful what he says." 



There is one aspect of the ritual, essential to its understanding, that 

 was carefully explained by the Ku'rahus, and the substance of many 

 conversations on the subject follows. A man's life is an onward move- 

 ment. If one has within him a determined purpose and seeks the 

 help of the powers his life will ■'elimb up." Here the Ku'rahus made 

 a gestui'e indicating a line slanting upward; then he arrested the 

 movement and, still holding his hand where he had stopped, went on 

 to saj^ that as a man is climl)ing up he does something that marks a 

 place in his life where the powers have given him the opportunity to 

 express in acts his peculiar endowments, so this place, this act, forms 

 a stage in his career, and he takes a new name to indicate that he is 

 on a level different from that which he occupied previou.sly. Some 

 men, he said, can rise only a little way, others live on a dead level, 

 and he illustrated his words by moving his hands horizontallj'. Men 

 having X30wer to advance, climb step by step, and here again he made 

 his idea plain by a gesture picturing a slant, then a level, a slant, and 

 a level. In this connection he called attention to the words, in line 

 1359, "rutu'rahwitz pari," "to overtake walking," saying that the 

 people who desire to have a name, or to change their name, must 

 strive to overtake in the walk of life an upper level, such a one as 

 these ancient men spoken of in tlie ritual had reached, where they 

 threw away the names b.y which they had been known before. 

 "Rutu'rahwitz pari," is a call to the Pawnees, bidding them emulate 

 these men and overtake them by the doing of like deeds. 



Three facts connected with the Pawnee custom of taking a new 

 name should l)e stated: 



First. A man was permitted to take a name only after the perform- 

 ance of an act indicative of ability or strength of character. 



vSecond. The name had to be assumed openly liefore the people to 

 whom the act it commemorated was known. 



Third. It was necessary that it should be announced in connection 

 with such a ritual as that here given. 



These facts indicate (1) that a man's name stood for what he had 

 shown himself to be in the light of hi.s actions; (-) that this was recog- 

 nized by his tribesmen; and (3) that it was proclaimed by one having 

 in charge the mediatory rites through which man could be approached 

 by the supernatural. 



