MooNEv] HEKALDIC AND NAME SYSTEMS 231 



in the painting and ornamentation of their sliielils and tipis. There 

 were formerly about fifty shield patterns used in the two tribes, and 

 all the warriors carrying sliields of the same pattern oonstitnted a 

 , close brotherhood, with simdar war cries, body paint, and ceremonial 

 taboos and regulations. Every prominent family also had its heraldic 

 tipi, which occupied its fixed ])lace in the tribal camp circle. Special 

 taboos and rules belonged to the tipi as to the shield, and the right of 

 hereditary descent was as nicely regulated as property ownership 

 among the whites. This system of heraldry will form the subject 

 of a future mouograiih. 



NAME SYSTEM 



Their system of personal names is also interesting. All the names 

 have meaning and are as much a part of the Owner as his hand or his 

 foot. Children are usually named soon after birth by one of the grand- 

 parents or other relative not the parent; the name is commonly sug- 

 gested by some passing incident, but may be hereditary, or intended 

 to commemorate the warlike deed of some ancestor. In this way a 

 girl may bear a war name bestowed by her grandfather to preserve 

 the recollection of his own achievement. There are no ordinal names 

 as among the eastern Sioux, no clan names as among the Shawnee, 

 and no names which indicate the band of tlie individual. Young men 

 as they grow up usually assume dream names, in obedience to visions, 

 and these are sometimes superseded in later life by names acquired 

 on the warpath, the hunt, or in council. Fre(iuently an aged war- 

 rior, who feels that his day is near its close, formally gives his name to 

 some young man who seems to him to merit the honor; the older man 

 then assumes a new name, or more frequently lives out his remaining 

 years without a name, being referred to and addressed simply as "old 

 man.'' Sometimes the old warrior, having outlived the need of a name 

 and not regarding any younger man as worthy to bear it, deliberately 

 "throws it away" and is henceforth nameless. Should he die without 

 having bestowed his name upon a successor, the name dies with him 

 and can not be revived. The name of the dead is never spoken in the 

 presence of the relatives, and upon the death of any member of a 

 family all the others take new names — a custom noted by Raleigh's 

 colonists on Roanoke island more than three centuries ago. More- 

 over, all words suggesting the name of the dead person are dropped 

 from the language for a term of years, and other words, conveying 

 the same idea, are substituted. The same custom exists among the 

 Comanche and perhaps among other tribes. 



MARRIAGE 



Marriage among the Kiowa, as among the plains tribes generally, is 

 a simple affair, with none of the elaborate ceremonials found among the 

 Hopi and other sedentary Indians. About all that is necessary is that 



