FLETCHER— A BIRTHDAY WISH 



parts by an unseen, living power, and is like to a great family of which 

 man is a member. 



The belief that Nature is a great family is fundamental to this 

 ceremony. The complex sacred objects used in the rite represent day 

 and night, the heavens with its sun and stars, the earth with its land 

 and water; all these are symbolically present and in sympathy with 

 the underlying and probably the earliest purport of the ceremony, 

 namely, the natural desire for children that the life of the people may 

 be continuous. Under the influence of the idea of Nature as set forth 

 in the ceremony, a development seems to have come about in the 

 purpose of the rite that gave to it a wider outlook and led it into a 

 broader channel of feeling, so that it became a means by which to 

 extend the peaceful tie of the family beyond the merely natural limits, 

 and to draw together two groups of persons having no common kin- 

 ship, into the semblance of a family relation. 



The ceremony required the presence of two wholly unrelated 

 groups of people. One group was called "the fathers" and was com- 

 posed of the kindred of the man who took the initiative in organizing 

 the party, of twenty or more, and who was termed "the father". 

 These persons generally belonged to the well-to-do class, as the re- 

 quirements for the ceremony were such that only skilful hunters and 

 thrifty households could supply the needed articles. The second 

 group, called "the children", was made up of the relatives of the man 

 chosen by "the father" to receive the visiting party and who was 

 known as "the son". "The father" and "the son" had to be of equal 

 standing in their respective tribes. "The father" selected a man, 

 versed in the rite, who knew all the songs, the ritualistic movements, 

 and manifold details of the ceremony, and he became the priestly 

 leader, to whom the entire company must yield absolute obedience. 



The honor accorded those men who assumed the responsible posi- 

 tions of "father" and "son" was of so high a character that the labor 

 involved in the accumulation of the articles demanded for the cere- 

 mony was willingly undertaken, as the honor not only bestowed 

 tribal distinction on these men and their associates, but it brought to 

 them the promise of peace, of prosperity, and of future happiness. 



This ceremony was always distinct from tribal rites, from voca- 

 tions of the people, from gatherings of religious or secular societies, 

 and in no way did it conflict with them. An old priest of the rite, 

 speaking of the time when it could be performed, said: "We take up 

 the sacred emblems [ceremonial objects] in the spring, when the birds 

 are mating; in the summer, when the birds are nesting and caring for 

 their young; in the autumn, when the birds are flocking; but, never 



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