Lk FLESCHE) 



CHILD-NAMING RITE 91 



The}" shall become a people of the days that are gentle and peaceful. 



Of a little yellow flower 



I have made my body. 



The little Ba-shta', that stands amidst the winds, 



T have made to be my body. 



When the little ones make of the Ba-shta' their bodies, 



They shall ever live together without anger, without hatred. 



To''-wo°-i'-hi-zhi°-ga, Little To°-wo°-i'-hi, in speaking to Miss 

 Fletcher in 1898 of the Osage gentile system, said that there are 

 five subgentes in the Tsi'-zhu Wa-shta-ge gens, namely: 



1. Tsi'-u-9ko°-gka, House in the center, meaning the Sanctuary 

 in the keeping of this gens which, figuratively, stands in the center 

 of the earth. 



2. Ba'-po, Elder, or, People of the elder trees. 



3. Mo°'-5a-hi, Arrow-tree, or, People of the arrow tree. 



4. Zho^-go"', Wliite-tree (Sycamore), or, People of the white 

 tree. 



5. Sho'-ka, Messengers, or. People from whom a ceremonial 

 messenger is chosen for the gens. Sometimes this gens is called 

 Tsi'-u-thu-ha-ge, Last group of houses. 



It is from the people of the Tsi'-u-Qko°-gka that the hereditary 

 chief of the Tsi'-zhu great tribal division must always be chosen. 

 The Ba'-po subgens has the office of making the stem for the cere- 

 monial peace pipe of the Tsi'-zhu Wa-shta-ge. The stem must 

 always be made of the Ba'-po, the elder tree. The people of the 

 Arrow-tree and the Sycamore gentes have lost the significance of 

 their life symbols. All of these five subgentes use the cone-flower 

 symbolic hair cut. 



There is something pathetic in the passing away of these ancient 

 rites and customs which the Osage Indians had treasured from the 

 earliest tunes of their tribal existence. Joe Sho'"-ge-mo°-i°, like his 

 father, had respect and reverence for the religious thoughts of his 

 ancestors which they had expressed in symbols and rituals with cere- 

 monial forms and handed down. Joe had two little daughters 

 (pi. 9, a) upon whom he bestowed a large share of his affections. He 

 not only gave to each of them a sacred name of his gens, but, from 

 year to year, as they approached womanhood, he cut their hau- to 

 typify the sacred flower of peace and happiness, an act which 

 inii)lied a suppUcation to Wa-ko^'-da to bless each little one with a 

 long and fruitful life. At the last symbolic hair cut the children had 

 reached school age and they willingly went to the house of learning. 

 The white children with whom they mingled hooted and jeered at 

 them for their strange hair cut and made them unhappy. When 

 they came home they told their father of their unkind treatment at 

 the school. The fond father quietly took a pair of shears and cut 

 away from each little head the symbohc locks. 



