Part 15

| Tsíhe | {~LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O~}iñ'{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}a

| Lodge | small

Translation.

1 "O younger brother! we must see what can be done to make human beings of the children." The Black Bear came to them and stood. 3 He went to the mysterious one of day, saying, "Ho, grandfather! the children have no bodies." He replied, "I have an everlasting road (in which I must keep); 6 I am not the only mysterious one; You must still seek for help." (On reporting to the leader, the latter said,) "O Kaxe-wahü-san, my younger brother! we must still see what can be done." 9 So the Black Bear went to the star "Watse-{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED T~}u{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}a, saying, "Ho, grandfather! the children have no bodies." He replied, "I have an everlasting road (in which I must keep); 12 "I am not the only mysterious one; "You must still seek for help." (On reporting to the leader, the latter said), "O Kaxe-wahü-san, my younger brother! we must still see what can be done." 15 So the Black Bear went to the Bowl of the Great Dipper, saying, "O grandfather! the children have no bodies!" He replied, "I have an everlasting road (in which I must keep); 18 "I am not the only mysterious one; "You must still seek for help." (On reporting to the leader, the latter said), "O Kaxe-wahü-san, my younger brother! we must still see what can be done." 21 Then he went to the Seven Stars, saying, "Ho, grandfather! the children have no bodies." He replied, "I have an everlasting road (in which I must keep); 24 "I am not the only mysterious one; "You must still seek for help." (On reporting this to the leader, the latter said), 26 "O Kaxe-wahü-san, my younger brother! we must still see what can be done." So he went to the Morning Star, saying, "Ho, grandfather! the children have no bodies." He replied, "I have an everlasting road (in which I must keep); 30 "I am not the only mysterious one; "You must still seek for help." (On reporting this to the leader, the latter said), " O Kaxe-wahü-san, my younger brother! we must still see what can be done." 33 So he went to the Red Bird, who was sitting (on her nest), saying, "Ho, grandmother! The children have no bodies." * * * * * 36 They went to the good land of day. In four revolutions or gyrations of the upper worlds, we became human beings. Though we were human beings, we did not find bodies. 39 They arrived at the second revolution of the upper worlds. There we were not (complete) human beings. They arrived at the third revolution of the upper worlds. 42 There we were not (complete) human beings. They arrived at the fourth revolution of the upper worlds They stood on a sycamore tree. 45 They stood there at harvest time. "Ho, younger brother! a man has left a trail." "Ho, elder brother!" said the Black Bear; "you have said that a man has left a trail. "This is the man." 48 "Ho, elder brother!" (said the stranger) "I am Young Hañ{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}a." [Tsi{~LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O~}u.] "Ho, younger brother! a man has left a trail." [Black Bear.] "Ho, elder brother! you have said that a man has left a trail. "This is the man." 51 "Ho, elder brother!" (said the stranger) "I am Osage. "We shall be Hañ{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}a people." Some people left a trail. 54 Those were the lodges of the Hañ{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}a uta¢an{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED T~}se. (The Hañ{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}a uta¢an{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED T~}se leader said) "Ho! some persons have come. "Tsi{~LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O~}u and Watsetsi have come." 57 They thought of what was good for the children. They decided that the two should continue as chiefs for the children. They decided that the two should continue without anything that would be fatal to the children. (And they said) 60 "There shall be an assembly of the children. "You two shall seek a land in which the children may become men." They two arranged for the location of a land in order that the children might become men in it. 63 The Female Beaver, who had been traveling, came to the confines of the village (of the Hañ{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}a uta¢an{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED T~}se?) (She made?) a small lodge (for herself?).

Good Voice, of the Mink'in gens, knew the history of the Female Beaver, but he failed to keep his promise to dictate it to the author.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

An Osage said to the author: "We do not believe that our ancestors were really animals, birds, &c., as told in the traditions. These things are only wa-wi'-ku-ska'-ye [symbols] of something higher." On saying this he pointed to the sky.

Apart from such traditions or myths, it is found that even the taboos and the names of the gentes, subgentes, phratries, and persons are objects of mysterious reverence among many, if not all, of the Siouan tribes. Such names are never used in ordinary conversation. This is especially the case in tribes where the secret society continues in all its power, as among the Osage, the Ponka, and the Kansa. When the author was questioning these Indians he was obliged to proceed very cautiously in order to obtain information of this character, which was not communicated till they learned about his acquaintance with some of the myths. When several Dakota delegations visited Washington he called on them and had little trouble in learning the names of their gentes, their order in the camping circle, &c., provided the interpreters were absent. During his visit to the Omaha, from 1878 to 1880, he did not find them very reticent in furnishing him with such information, though he was generally referred to the principal chief of each gens as the best authority for the names in his own division. But he found it very difficult to induce any of them to admit that the gentes had subdivisions, which were probably the original gentes. It was not till 1880, and after questioning many, that by the merest accident he obtained the clew from the keeper of a sacred pipe.

The Iowa, who have these social divisions and personal names of mythic significance, also have sacred songs, but these are in the Winnebago language. It is probable that they are the property of a secret order, as they, too, show how some of the gentes descended as birds from the upper world. The names of the Winnebago gentes and of some members of the tribe have been recorded by the author, who has also learned parts of their traditions. He infers that their secret society has not been abolished.

When a man of the Kansa tribe observed that the author had an inkling of the matter he related part of the tradition of that tribe, explaining the origin of the names and the taboos of several Kansa gentes. The ancestors of these gentes were spoken of as birds which descended from an upper world. The phratries in that tribe, the "Wa-yun min-'dun," or "(Those who) sing together," refer to mystic songs and strengthen the view that the secret society exists among these Indians. Several members of the tribe have positively stated its existence.

As one phratry is composed of the two gentes, Large and Small Hañka, that have the sole right to sing the war songs, time may show that these songs, which, with their chart of pictographs(23), are used by the Osage, are substantially those of the seventh degree in the Osage society. This is rendered the more probable by the fact that the Kansa have grouped their gentes in seven phratries, just the number of the degrees in the society. And this arrangement by sevens is the rule among Osage, Kansa, Ponka, Omaha, and Dakota, though there are apparent exceptions.

Further investigation may tend to confirm the supposition that in any tribe which has mythic names for its members and its social divisions (as among the Osage, Kansa, Quapaw, Omaha, Ponka, Iowa, Oto, Missouri, Tutelo, and Winnebago), or in one which has mythic names only for its members and local or other names for its social divisions (as among the Dakota, Assiniboin, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Crow), there are now or there have been secret societies or "The Mysteries."

FOOTNOTES

1 The sound of this inverted u, between o and u, as well as the sounds of other letters used in this article, except that of the inverted {~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED H~} (which is a sound approximating ch in the German word ich), is to be found on page 206, Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.

2 It is probable, however, that the Pan{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED H~}ka (Ponka) man began with the stick at the east, as he must use the right hand and foot first.

3 Meaning uncertain; it may refer to the female or doe.

4 See "Omaha Sociology," §§ 14-16, 19, 28, 33, 34, 36, 56, 143, 248-258, and passim, in Third Annual Report of the Director of the Bureau of Ethnology.

5 The literal rendering of the title is "Growth told. Tsí{~LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O~}u Peacemaker theirs." This may be translated freely by "Revelations of the elders of the Red Eagle gens."

6 Oiñ'{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}a wehá{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}i¢e, "The first end of the children" or "The beginning of the race." This reckoning was backward. The Ponka have a similar usage: uhañge, an end; uhañge pahañga te, the first end or beginning. Ádintaú, formed by crasis from a*d*e and intau, may refer to the words of the old men who have handed down these traditions. Tsiká is unintelligible to the younger Osage of the present day. One man told the author that he thought it meant, "O grandfather," being addressed to the principal Wakan{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED T~}a. He said that it was substituted for another name of that being.

7 The chorus or refrain at the end of each line is omitted in the free translation, as it would make confusion. If retained, the first four lines would read thus:

The first of the race: he really said, O grandfather!

He was saying, "Ho, younger brother! the children have no bodies": he really said, O grandfather!

"We shall seek bodies for our children": he really said, O grandfather!

"Ho, younger brother! you shall attend to it": he really said, O grandfather!

8 É{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}i añká refers to the preceding words, which were those of one of the mythic speakers. He was an ancestor of the Tsí{~LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O~}u gens. Here he addressed his younger brother. At this time the brothers were destitute of human souls and bodies, though they possessed conscious existence and could talk, as well as move about from place to place.

9 See the lowest horizontal line on the left side of the chart.

10 Nikací{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}a-dá{~LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O~}i. Another reading is níkací{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}aqtsi-dá{~LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O~}i: they were not complete human beings.

11 A different reading of lines 17 to 25 is as follows: