LA FLESCHE— OSAGE CEREMONIES 



TSI HASHI 



(Those Who were the Last to Come) 



A. Nika Wako"dagi (Men of Mystery, or Thunder People). 



Xo n dse Watse (Cedar Star), Shdka (Official messenger). 



B. Thoxe (archaic name for the buffalo bull). 



At the initiation of a candidate into the mysteries of the tribal 

 rites, the officers and the candidate, in ceremonially approaching their 

 place within the ground marked out for the ceremony, observe certain 

 rules as to the right and left. If the initiator, his assistants, and the 

 candidate belong to the H6 n ga side, they will go from left to right, 

 around the eastern end of the place to the western end, cross the 

 space and enter on the H6 n ga or right side. If they belong to the 

 Tsizhu division, they will go around the eastern end of the place, from 

 right to left, to the western end, cross the space and enter on the 

 Tsizhu or left side. 



On arriving at their place at the eastern end of the ground, the 

 men sit side by side in the middle, facing the west. They put down 

 on the ground before them a bag of woven buffalo-hair (pi. i). This 

 bag was made with reference to the position of the two great divisions, 

 for when the bag was being made for one of the gentes of the H6 n ga 

 division, the hair used is taken from the right shoulder of the buffalo, 

 and when the bag is made for a gens of the Tsizhu, the hair is taken 

 from the left shoulder. 



There is also a right and a left end to the buffalo-hair bag, indi- 

 cated by the mouth and the flap, which must always be placed toward 

 the west, with the flap on the upper side of the bag. 



Within the buffalo-hair bag is another bag made of deerskin, which 

 is so placed that its mouth and flap must be in the same position as 

 the outer bag, so that it also may be said to have a right and a left end. 



Inside the deerskin bag is a case made of woven rush. This also 

 is placed so that its mouth and flap may be toward the west. This 

 case, however, has other marks to distinguish the right end and the 

 left. The uninitiated would not think to look for these marks, but 

 one who has been properly instructed would examine the fastenings 

 at an end of the case, and, finding there six, would say, "the left end", 

 and on examining the other and finding seven fastenings, he would 

 say, "the right end". 



These three envelopes constitute a portable shrine, which they 

 are in reality. Each of the envelopes is called waxobe, a sacred article, 

 because it has been made ceremonially and for the purpose of pro- 

 tecting the sacred bird-hawk which forms the central figure of all the 

 war rituals and ceremonies. The sacred bird-hawk is placed within 



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