84 THE OSAGE TRIBE 



lETH. ANN. 43 



330. There comes a time 



331. When a calm and peaceful day comes upon me, 



332. So there shall come upon the little ones a calm and peaceful day, 



as they travel the path of life. 



The most important wi'-gi-es (recited parts of a ritual) used in 

 the child-naming rituals are those which relate to the life symbols of a 

 gens, such as the sim, the moon, the morning and eveiiing stars, 

 night and day, deer, elk, bear, etc., which are called wa-zho'-i-ga-the, 

 objects of which bodies are made; and those which relate to the 

 personal, sacred names adopted by a gens to be used by its members 

 for their children. The wi'-gi-e relating to the life symbols are 

 usually recited at the beginning of the ceremony. (See wi'-gi-e of the 

 Tsi'-zhu Wa-shta-ge gens, p. 60.) The name wi'-gi-es, called Zha'-zhe 

 Ki-to" (Zha'-zhe, name; I^i-to°, the taking of), are recited when all 

 the No^'-ho^-zhi^-ga who were invited to take part in the ceremony 

 of the conferring of a name upon a child have assembled. The life- 

 symbol and the name-taking wi'-gi-es are paraphrases of the mythical 

 stories of the origin of the people of a gens. These mythical origin 

 stories are called Ni'-ki-e, freely translated. Sayings of the Ancient 

 Men. 



Xu-tha'-wa-to^-i" (pi. 7), of the Tsi'-zhu Wa-no" gens of the 

 Tsi'-zhu great tribal division, recorded the life symbol wi'-gi-e of his 

 gens (see pp. 75-84) but he declined to give the wi'-gi-e of the sacred 

 gens names. However, these names appear in the Wi'-gi-e To°-ga, 

 Great Wi'-gi-e (36th Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 254-269), 

 which are here given in their order, as follows : 



1. 'I°-Qka', White Rock. In the origin story of this gens the 

 people came down from the sky, as eagles, to the earth and alighted 

 upon seven trees. Thence: 



36. They moved onward over the earth. 

 32. They came to the top of a rocky cliff, 

 38. Close to it they came and paused, 



40. They spake to one another, saying: White Rock 



41. We shall make to be a personal name for ourselves. 



— (36th Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 255.) 



2. Mo^'-hi" Wa-ko-'-da, Mysterious Knife. From the White 

 Rock the people went forth to wander over the earth. They thought 

 to make for themselves a knife for ceremonial use. The Sho'-ka 

 went again and again to find the right kind of stone of which to make 

 the knife. He brought home the red flint, the blue flint, the flint 

 streaked with yellow, the black flint and the white flint, one after 

 the other, each of which was rejected as being unfit for use by the 

 little ones as a knife. Finally he brought home a round-handled 



