50 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



" Ball " clan is in reality the Hawk clan ; the " Hand " clan of the 

 Cayuga is the Gray Wolf clan, and the " Potato " clan of that tribe 

 is in fact a Duck clan or possibly a Wolf clan. This confusion has 

 been due to popular acceptance of a sobriquet for the real name, hence 

 the doubt in the last instance between the Duck and the Wolf, which 

 it is probable will ultimately be removed. Mr. Hewitt was fortunate 

 also in obtaining a set of wooden masks of the various wind gods, and 

 also two masks of food gods — eight in all. He also procured the 

 gourd rattle used by the late Chief John Buck, a medicine flute, and 

 what was probably the last cradle-board with a beaded belt on the 

 reservation. 



On returning from the field early in July, Mr. Hewitt undertook 

 at once the editing and copying of the texts of some of his material 

 relating, to the Iroquois League. Among these are the following, 

 chiefly in the Onondaga language: (1) The eulogy of the grandsires 

 and founders, one of the essential chants in the condolence ritual, in 

 the version used by the " father side " of the league ; (2) the laws gov- 

 erning federal chiefs in intertribal relations; (3) the laws relating to 

 murder committed by a federal chief; (4) the charge made to a newly 

 installed federal chief; (5) the important tradition of the Bear-foot 

 episode; (6) the address made at the lodge of a deceased federal chief 

 three days after his burial; and (7) the laws relating to the nomina- 

 tion and election of a candidate for a federal chiefship. Mr. Hewitt 

 also commenced the translation of the extended " father-side " tra- 

 dition of the founding of the League by the Deganawida and his 

 associates, read the available proofs of Seneca Fiction, Legends, 

 and Myths for the Thirty-second Annual Report, and supplied nu- 

 merous technical data for use in responses to inquiries by corre- 

 spondents. 



Mr. Francis La Flesche, ethnologist, when not engaged in field 

 work was occupied in assembling his notes on the Osage Indians, the 

 greater portion of which consists of phonographic records taken 

 from men versed in the tribal rituals, which evidently Avere composed 

 •for the preservation and transmission of the religious concepts of 

 the tribe. Three forms are used in their construction, namely, reci- 

 tation, song, and dramatic action. The spoken parts, called " wigie," 

 are intoned by the masters of ceremony and by male members of the 

 various gentes of the tribe who have memorized them. These wigie 

 tell of the genesis of the tribe; they recount the stories of the adop- 

 tion of life symbols and explain their significance, and narrate the 

 finding and selection of the materials used in making the ceremonial 

 paraphernalia. The songs used by the master of ceremonies, with 

 the aid of a few chosen assistants, make the emotional appeal to the 

 various symbols employed in the ritual. Ceremonial acts, proces- 

 sions, and dances accompany some of the songs and wigie. 



