ANTHROPOLOGY: A. C. FLETCHER 
471 
an unseen messenger from the spirit world should approach the infant 
to bid it come with him, the child would be able to say, ''No, I can't 
go with you, look, my moccasins are worn outl" and so, the baby would 
not be taken away from its mother. 
Both garments and the manner of wearing them ceremonially are by 
the Indians invested with symbolic meanings. For instance: The Robe 
is significant of a man's duties or purposes according to the manner in 
which it is worn or adjusted about his person. The position of the 
eagle feather on a man's scalp-lock indicates the class of act which 
brought to the man the right to this war honor. Other regalia made 
up of different articles, each one of which has its special significance, 
present to the Indian warrior a picture, as of the battle field where 
he fought, defending his tribe, and won his honors. None of the arti- 
cles employed to represent war honors or a special part taken by a man 
in any of the tribal rites are allowed to be used as mere adornments. 
A war honor can not be worn by a man until he has won the right to 
wear it, by the performance of a valorous act, that has been publicly 
recounted, approved by witnesses, in the presence of the tribe, at which 
time the honor appropriate to his act is accorded him, and he is author- 
ized to wear the insignia belonging to the grade of his act. 
Moccasins have a significance. Formerly each tribe had its own 
style of moccasin, so that a person's tribe would be indicated by the 
kind of moccasin he wore. 
In the ceremony that marks the birth of the 'new life' into the tribal 
organization, the dual forces are present, the masculine sky and the 
feminine earth; the former, represented by the Tour Winds' invoked 
to come hither' in the opening ritual song; and, the latter, by the stone 
placed in the center of the ceremonial tent. The time when this tribal 
rite took place was in the spring, "when the grass was up and the meadow 
lark singing." The child was about four years old and must be able 
to go about alone and unassisted. A tent was set up and made sacred, 
therein the priest awaited the children brought thither by their mothers, 
each child carried a new pair of moccasins. As the mother approached 
the tent with her child, she addressed the priest, saying: "Venerable 
man, I desire my child to wear moccasins!" and, the little one, carrying 
its moccasins, entered the tent alone. According to the Omaha rite 
and that of some of the cognates, the priest, after summoning the ^Four 
Winds' lifted the child upon the stone, where it stood in its bare feet 
facing the east, then the priest lifted it and placed it on the stone facing 
the south, again he lifted it and on the stone it stood facing the west, 
lifting it again, its feet rested on the stone as it faced the north, lastly, 
