LAFLESCHEl CHILD-NAMING RITE 67 



220. Even the gods 



221. Shall not be able to stand in their way to prevent their going. 



222. Moreover, I have been able to bring myself to see old age. 



223. When the little ones make of me their bodies, 



224. They also shall be able to bring themselves to see old age. 



225. I have been able to bring myself to the calm and peaceful days. 



226. When the little ones make of me their bodies, 



227. They also shall be able to bring themselves to the calm and 



peaceful days, as they travel the path of life. 



At the close of the wi'-gi-e Sho°'-ge-mo°-i° and the Sho'-ka are 

 invited by the family to join them in the evening meal, after which 

 the two men go home. 



The Xo'-ka Ceremonially Conducted to the Child's House 



Before sunrise the next morning the Sho'-ka, carrying his Httle 

 pipe, the badge of his office, goes to Sho°'-ge-mo°-i'"s house to con- 

 duct him to the house of the child to be named. Upon receiving the 

 formal message from the Sho'-ka, Sho'"-ge-mo''-i° takes his paint 

 pouch from a bag containing his personal belongings and puts some 

 red paint on the inner surface of his hands. Then as the eastern 

 clouds take from the rising sun a crimson tinge, he lifts his hands, 

 palms outward, toward them and the sun itself. After a silent pause 

 he withdraws his hands and reddens his face with the paint on them, 

 as though with the color of the sim, and his messengers, the reddened 

 clouds. When he has put upon his face the sacred color he takes 

 from a package in which he keeps his ornamental feathers a red 

 downy eagle feather which he fastens to his scalplock so that the 

 red feather, the life symbol of his gens, stands firm and upright. In 

 the days when buffalo were plentiful the No'"-ho°-zhi''-ga who is to 

 act as Xo'-ka at the child-nammg ceremony wore a buffalo robe 

 with the hair outside, but since the extinction of that animal he 

 substituted for the robe a woven blanket obtained from traders. 



Having thus decorated himself with red paint and the red feather, 

 symbols of the sky, and the substitute of the buffalo robe, an earth 

 symbol, Sho°'-ge-mo°-i°, now actual Xo'-ka, goes forth to the house 

 of the child to be named, following the Sho'-ka, who leads the way. 

 It was explained by the old man that the manner of approach of his 

 gens, the Tsi'-zhu Wa-shta-ge, to the house of the child was very 

 simple, that it did not have the elaborate ceremonial forms described 

 by Wa-xthi'-zhi that were followed by his gens, the Puma, and the 

 other war gentes of the Ho°'-ga great division. 



Arriving at the house, the Sho'-ka enters without pause and leads 

 the Xo'-ka to his place at the left of the father, who sits with his wife 

 and child at the east end of the house. When the Xo'-ka has taken 

 his seat the No°'-ho''-zhi''-ga of his gens, the Tsi-zhu Wa-shta-ge, 



