Osage Indians -- Folklore; Osage language -- Texts
Just under the river, at the left, we see a large star, the Red or Morning
Star. Next are six stars, Ta¢a*d*¢in. The Omaha know a similar group,
which they call "Minxa si ʇañga," or "Large foot of a goose." Next is the
Evening Star; and last comes the small star, "Mikak’ĕ-ɔiñʞa." Beneath
these four we see the seven stars, or Pleiades (Mikak’ĕ u*d*átse
pé¢ŭn*d*a, the Seven Gentes of Stars), between the Moon (on the left) and
the Sun (on the right). Beneath these are the peace pipe (on the left) and
the hatchet (on the right). A bird is seen hovering over the four upper
worlds. These worlds are represented by four parallel horizontal lines,
each of which, except the lowest one, is supported by two pillars. The
lowest world rests on a red oak tree.
The journey of the people began at a point below the lowest upper world,
on the left side of the chart. Then the people had neither human bodies
nor souls, though they existed in some unknown manner. They ascended from
the lowest upper world, on the left, to the highest. There they obtained
human souls in the bodies of birds, according to Sa*d*eki¢e.
ʞahiʞe-waʇayiñʞa said that there they met a male red bird, to whom they
appealed for aid. (See p. 383, line 18.) This was distinct from the female
Red Bird, who gave them human bodies. They descended to the first world,
and from that they traveled until they alighted on the red oak tree. (See
p. 383, line 30.) The ground was covered with grass and other kinds of
vegetation. Then the paths of the people separated: some marched on the
left, being the peace gentes that could not take life; they subsisted on
roots &c.; while those on the right killed animals. By and by the gentes
exchanged commodities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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