ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT 9 
naturally personified, and to a degree deified, those objects to 
which, as he thought, the unseen power had granted this 
form of life. Among these he included the vast space 
within which the heavenly bodies mysteriously moved and 
into which all living forms are born and exercise their func- 
tions. Thus all aspects of nature are made to play a part 
in the great drama of life as presented in these rituals. 
Early in the year Mr. La Flesche finished transcribing the 
wigie, as well as his notes on two complete versions and a 
portion of a third version of the Child-naming rituals, com- 
prising 107 typewritten pages. On completing this task he 
undertook the translation of the Osage personal names in 
current use and of arranging them by gentes. The Osage 
generally cling tenaciously to the ancient custom of cere- 
monially naming their children in the belief that the cere- 
~ monies aid the young in attaining old age. In this work 
Mr. La Flesche was able to determine that many members 
of the Osage tribe enrolled as full bloods are in reality of 
mixed blood. The tabulation of these names by sex and 
gentes, with their translations, together with a transcription 
of some characteristic tales, occupies 201 typewritten pages. 
During the last four months of the fiscal year Mr. La | 
Flesche was engaged in assembling his notes on the Fasting 
ritual of the Tsizhu Washtage gens. Most of the songs are 
quite different from those belonging to the Fasting rituals 
of the Hénga, while some of the wigie are the same, these 
being used in common with slight modifications among the 
different gentes. These Fasting rituals cover 139 completed 
pages, including the music. 
A wigie was obtained by Mr. La Flesche from an old 
woman during his visit to the Osage in January, 1917. This 
wigie, which consists of 8 pages, fills a hiatus in the rush-mat 
ceremony previously recorded. 
At the opening of the fiscal year Dr. Truman Michelson, 
ethnologist, was engaged in continuing his studies among 
the Sauk and Fox Indians of Iowa, the main work accom- 
plished being the phonetic restoration of a long text, written 
in the current syllabary, on the origin of the White Buffalo 
60160°—24 2 
