PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 135 



gens are known as " They who touch not the buffalo head or skull." 

 This name originated when the seven old men carried the sacred 

 pipes around the tribal circle. 



Diagram No. III.— THE DEEK-HEAD GENTILE CIKCLE. 



The Eagle people found that they were slighted, and started 

 away in anger, determined to abandon the tribe. But the old 

 men pursued them, and handed them a bladder filled with tobacco, 

 and also a buffalo skull, saying, " Keep this skull as a sacred 

 thing." Hence the name of the sub-gens, and also " Dried or 

 withered Eagle," meaning " Dried buffalo skull," the birth-name 

 of the first-born son. 



RighU and duties of sub-gentes. — The second Elk sub-gens keeps 

 the war-tent and sacred bag, and leads in the worship of the 

 Thunder-God. The members of the first sub-gens of the Hanga, 

 or Foremost, keep the Sacred Bark lodge, the most sacred of the 

 three, which contains the sacred pole of the Ponkas and Omahas. 

 While they cannot eat the sacred buffalo meat, they can eat the 



