§ 399. In the author’s account of Osage war customs he relates the following incidents: On the first day of preparation for the warpath the Black bear people bring willows and kindle a fire outside the war tent. On the same day some other Hañʞa people deposit branches of dried willow in some place out of sight of the war tent, and the Ȼuqe men (part of the Buffalo-bull gens) bring in those branches. On the next day men of the Night gens (a sort of Black bear people) set the willow branches on fire, and they and the Elder Osage people say prayers. After this there is a struggle to secure pieces of the charcoal. An Elk man and a Kaⁿ[s]e man act as criers. On the third day an Osage man brings in the sacred bag for the Hañʞa or Waɔaɔe mourner (the gens of each man is not specified, but both men belong to the right or war side of the tribe), and a Sinʇ[s]aʞȼe man brings in a like bag for the mourner belonging to the T[s]iɔu or peace side of the tribe. On the fourth day a woman of a Buffalo gens on the right or Hañʞa side of the tribe lays down two strips of buffalo hide so that the warriors may take the first step on the warpath. After the warriors start, a Ȼuqe man is taken ahead of them in order to perform some ceremony which has not been recorded. On the return of the war party the warriors are met outside of the village by an old man of the Kaⁿ[s]e or Wind gens. He performs certain ceremonies as he walks around the party (beginning at the north and ending at the east), and then he tells them whether they can enter the village. The clothing of the returning warriors becomes the property of the old Kaⁿ[s]e man and his attendant. The Kaⁿ[s]e gens of the Osage tribe is called the I[p]ats‘ĕ, because it devolves on a member of that gens to fill the peace pipes. The corresponding gens of the Kaⁿze tribe is called Ibatc‘ĕ or Hañga-jiñga. THE “MESSIAH CRAZE.” § 400. Since the present article was begun there has arisen the so-called “Messiah craze” among the Dakota and other tribes of Indians. The author does not feel competent to describe this new form of Indian religion, but he suspects that some features of it are either willful or accidental perversions of the teachings of the missionaries. * * * * * § 401. In presenting this study of Siouan cults to the scientific world the author has a painful sense of its incompleteness, but he hopes that the facts here fragmentarily collated may prove helpful to future investigators. The inferences, provisional assumptions, and suggestive queries in this chapter are not published as final results. Even should any of them prove to be erroneous the author’s labor will not be in vain, for through the correction of his mistakes additional information will be collected, tending to the attainment of the truth, which should be the aim of all mankind. FOOTNOTES: