18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



bureau, especially with reference to the Iroquoiau aud 

 Algonquian tribes. 



Mr. Francis La Flesche, ethnologist, continued his in- 

 vestigations of the ethnolog^y of the Osage Indians, giving 

 particular attention to their rituals and accompanying 

 songs. He was enabled to record on the dictaphone the 

 songs and fragments of the rituals belonging to the 

 Waxobe degree of the No"'ho"zhi''ga rites, of which, as 

 noted in the last annual report, he has been making a spe- 

 cial study. These rituals have been transcribed and, with 

 the 84 songs that have been transcribed in musical nota- 

 tion by Miss Alice C. Fletcher, comprise 66 typewritten 

 pages. 



Mr. La Flesche has also been able to record the 

 No"'zhi"zho°, or Fasting degree, of the Puma and Black 

 Bear gentes. These two organizations are closely re- 

 lated ; they now not only use in common the songs and . 

 rituals of the No"'ho''zhi"ga rites, but they even go to the 

 extent of exchanging gentile personal names as full recog- 

 nition of their relationship. The No^'zhi^zho" degree em- 

 ploys 12 rituals and numerous songs, of which latter 81 

 have been recorded. These songs are divided into two 

 great groups, first of which is known as " The Seven 

 Songs," having 16 sets, and the second, " The Six Songs," 

 having 17 sets. The Osage texts of these rituals and songs 

 cover 207 pages, about three-fourths of which have been 

 finally typewritten. The 81 songs have been transcribed 

 in musical notation by Miss Fletcher, while the transla- 

 tion of the rituals and the words of the songs is in progress. 



In the autumn of 1912 Mr. La Flesche was fortunate in 

 securing in full the Ni'k'i degree of these intricate Osage 

 rites. Hitherto he had been able to obtain only the begin- 

 ning of this degree, but his informant was finally induced 

 to recite it in its entirety, comprising 1,542 lines. The 

 real title of this degree is Ni'k'i No"kV, " The Hearing 

 of the Words of the People." In it the genesis of the 

 tribe is given in a story made up of myth, legend, and 

 symbolism, the whole being clearly devised to keep the 



