LA FLESCHE] 



CHILD-NAMING RITE 95 



It is the picture of a bison; you can't see it [the bison] but we can. 

 You may make a sketch of it and write about it as much as you like." 

 The lady looked for a moment in silence at the locks and the little 

 shorn head, then, with a hearty laugh and a handclap, she snatched 

 up paper and pencil to make a sketch of the locks and the shorn 

 head, to the delight of all the Indians present. Thereafter she had 

 no trouble in getting information about the hair cut of all the gentes. 



Fondness of Personal Adornment 



Like their relatives, the Omaha and the Ponca, the Osage people 

 have a fondness for personal adornment. Much paint is used in 

 decorating the face and body. Most of the lines and figures drawn 

 upon the face and body are symbolic, as, for instance, a woman paints 

 the parting of her hair almost daily. The red line symbolizes the 

 path of the sim which forever passes over the earth and gives to it 

 vitality. It is a sign of supplication for the continuity of life by 

 procreation. Or, a man of the Life-giver gens paints his face all 

 yellow with a narrow black line running diagonally across his face 

 from one corner of his forehead down to the lower jaw on the oppo- 

 site side. This is the life sign ceremonially put upon a captive when 

 the word is passed by the Life-giver gens that the captive shall be 

 peiTiiitted to live. A downy feather worn upright on the crown of 

 the head by a man symbolizes the sun which brings life to the earth 

 in material form. The white shell gorget which a man wears as a 

 pendant on his necklace is also a symbol of the life-giving sun. 



Ear Perforating 



Down to recent times the Osage men have been sacrificing the 

 shapeliness of their external ears to the gratification of their fondness 

 for adornment. In ordinary times, and particularly on festal days, 

 the Osage men weighted their ears with strings of wampum or other 

 ornaments made of bone or shells and silver earbobs which were 

 introduced by traders. The weight of the earrings and the crowding 

 of the holes in the ears with the rings enlarge the perforations to an 

 extraordmary size. (PI. 11.) The holes, which are bored along the 

 rim of the pinna, were made by the same men who performed the 

 ceremony connected with the perforating. These men provided them- 

 selves wdth perforating instrimients made of sharpened bone, wooilen 

 expanders, and little blocks of wood against which the ear is pressed 

 when performing the operation. (PI. 12.) For a long time Wa'-thu- 

 xa-ge and Tsi'-zhu-zhi^-ga held this office. The former died a few 

 years ago. Both of these men were members of the Peace gens of the 

 Tsi'-zhu great tribal division. An Osage was asked why the ears 

 of the children were bored and he replied that the children whose 

 ears were bored were apt to be better behaved than those whose 

 ears were not perforated. 



