Donsiy.] FEAST ON THE HEARTS AND TONGUES SACRED SONGS. 291 



the following : " Sig<fe wada n/ be, The tracks are seen." " jfi wada n 'be 

 ag$i, They have come back from seeing the buffalo." "^ahe ^ad'S a^ai', 

 They hare gone to the hill that is near by." * * * " ^e wi n ait hS, 

 I have wounded a buffalo.'" " Huqpaqpa ina n <j;i u ', He walks coughing 

 repeatedly." This last refers to a habit of wounded buffaloes, they cough 

 repeatedly as the blood pours forth. 



La Fleche and Two Crows say that they never attended these feasts, 

 so they cannot give the words of the songs. Frank La Fleche says, 

 "None besides the Hangas and chiefs can give you correctly all of the 

 songs of the corn and buffalo, as it is looked upon as sacrilege to sing 

 these songs. The young people are strictly forbidden to sing them. 

 None of the young Omahas have taken any pains to learn them, although 

 we have often been to listen to the singing of them while the Hangas 

 and the chiefs were performing the ceremonies of the pole. You may, 

 but I very much doubt it, get it all from one of the Hangas or chiefs 

 by liberally compensating him for his patience (of which I fear he 

 •wouldn't have enough) in going through with it, as it takes three or 

 four nights without stopping, lasting from sundown till sunrise ; and 

 even then they find, sometimes, that they have omitted some. 13 I my- 

 self would like to know it all, but I have never once heard it sung by 

 any of the young men with whom I am accustomed to go, although they 

 frequently have had the presumption to sing all other religious songs, 

 such as the I n '-kug^i af i n/ , Wacicka a<J5i n/ , Wase" a<j;i n/ , etc., for amuse- 

 ment." 



§ 144. Skill in archery. — So great is the skill of the Indians in archery, 

 that they frequently sent their arrows completely through the bodies 

 of the animals at which they shot, the arrow-heads appearing in such 

 cases on the opposite side. Dougherty heard that in some instances 

 the arrows were sent with such force that they not only passed entirely 

 through the bodies of the buffaloes, but even went flying through the 

 air er fell to the ground beyond the animals. 



§145. Sets of arrows. — As each man had his own set of arrows dis- 

 tinguished from those of other men by peculiar marks, he had no diffi- 

 culty in recovering them after the slaughter of the herd, and by means 

 of them he could tell which animals were killed by him. Hence quar- 

 rels respecting the right of property in game seldom occurred, and the 

 carcass was awarded to the more fortunate person whose arrow pierced 

 the most vital part. 



§ 146. Frank La Fleche killed his first buffalo when he was but sev- 

 enteen years of age. On such occasions the slayer cut open the body 

 and ate the liver with the gall over it. 



§147. Carving and division of a buffalo. — When plenty of buffalo had 



"The Osages have an account of the orgin of corn, etc., in one of their sacred songs 

 preserved in their secret society. They do not allow their young men to learn these 

 songs. The writer has an abstract of this account obtained from one of the Osage 

 chiefs. It takes four days or nights to tell or chant the tradition of any Osage gens. 



