20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
Hewitt for the preparation of data for replies to correspond- 
ents, whose inquiries pertained to linguistic, historical, 
sociological, and technical matters. In connection with this 
work there were prepared 110 letters, rarely exceeding a 
page in length, although some occupied several pages and 
required considerable study and research in gathering the 
needed data for reply. 
During the year Mr. Francis La Flesche, ethnologist, 
recorded the rituals and accompanying songs of five addi- 
tional Osage ceremonies, known as Wawatho", Waddka 
Weko, Wazhi"gao, Zhi"gdzhi"ga Zhazhe Thadse, and Wéx- 
thexthe. Of these the Wawatho" is complete; the record 
fills about 150 pages, including songs, diagrams, and illus- 
trations. This ceremony, which is of religious significance 
and is reverenced by all the people, has been obsolete for 
about 20 years, and there now remain only two men in the 
tribe who remember it in most of its details. It was a peace 
ceremony that held an important place in the great tribal 
rites of the Osage, for through its influence friendly relations 
were maintained among the various gentes composing the 
tribe, and it was also the means by which friendship with 
interrelated tribes was established and preserved. Early 
French travelers mention this ceremony as being performed 
by the Osage in one of the tribes of the Illinois confederacy 
during the second decade of the eighteenth century. Unlike 
the Osage war ceremonies, which are complex and composed 
of several steps or degrees, the Wawatho" is simple and 
complete in itself. The “ pipes,”’ sometimes called calumets, 
which are employed in its performance, consist of a number 
of sacred symbolic articles, each of which, with its attendant 
ritual, was in the keeping of a certain gens of the tribe. 
The assembling of these articles formed an essential part of 
the ceremony, for it was on this occasion that the ritual, 
which explained both the significance of and the precepts 
conveyed by the sacred articles, had to be recited. This 
Wawatho" ceremony resembled that of the Omaha, Ponca, 
Oto, and Pawnee tribes, differing only in minor details. Teo 
the intelligent thinking class the aims and purposes of the 
ceremony are clear, but there are among the Osage, as 
