30 THE OSAGE TRIBE 



|ETH. ANN. 43 



notion that the earth was related to and influenced by all of the great 

 bodies that move around within the sky. However, they were not 

 satisfied that these celestial bodies move without the guidance of 

 some governing power, and they continued their search and their 

 discussions. Then, in course of time, there crept into the minds of 

 these men, who became known as the "Little Old Men," the thought 

 that a silent, invisible creative power pervades the sun, moon and 

 stars and the earth, gives to them life, and keeps them eternally in 

 motion and perfect order. This creative power which to their minds 

 was the source of life they named Wa-ko°'-da, Mysterious Power, 

 and sometimes E-a'-wa-wo" a-ka. The Causer of Our Being. 



These ideas are given expression in that part of the child-naming 

 rite where the initiated members of two gentes are first called to enter 

 the house in which the ceremonies are to take place. One of these 

 gentes, the Tsi'-zhu Wa-shta-ge, Peaceful Tsi'-zhu, represents the 

 sky with its sun, moon, and stars, and the other, the Wa'-tse-tsi 

 Wa-shta-ge, Peaceful Wa'-tse-tsi, represents the earth with its 

 waters and dry land. The house itself then becomes a symbol of 

 the sky which encompasses the sun, moon, stars, and the earth. 

 Thus the house, the two gentes and all the others who enter it to take 

 part in the rite become, collectively, a symbol of the universe wherein 

 life manifests itself by taking ou an infinite variety of bodily forms. 

 The whole ceremony is an expression of a longing desire that Wa- 

 ko°'-da who dwells in the universe will favor the little one who is 

 to be named with a long life and as endless line of descendants. 



The men who recorded the two versions of the Osage child-naming 

 rite were typical full-blood Indians, neither of them spoke the English 

 language, and nothing in all that they have given suggests foreign 

 influence. Wa-xthi'-zhi (pi. 1) was a man of an inquiring mind. 

 He did not hesitate to ask of his initiators the meaning of the parts of 

 the rituals which he did not fully understand. He learned much 

 from his father, who was well versed in the ancient tribal rites. 



Sho^'-ge-mo^-i" (pi. 2) did not have these advantages, but he had 

 a retentive mind and what he committed to memory of the rites was 

 sufficient to him. He did not insist upon being informed as to the 

 meaning of the parts of the rites that were obscure to him. 



I am indebted to Mr. Vince Dillon, of Fairfax, Okla., for permitting 

 me to use a photograph he had made of two little Osages showing 

 symbolic hair cut of one of them. Also to Joe Sho^'-ge-moM" for 

 the loan of a photograjjh of his two daughters. Joe is the son of 

 Sho'"-ge-mo°-i'', who recorded the second version of the child-naming 

 ceremony. 



