Osage Indians -- Folklore; Osage language -- Texts
The small figures on the left, in going from the tree (on the right when
facing the tree), show the heavenly bodies or beings to whom the Black
Bear went for help, and those on the right, in going from the tree (on the
left when facing the top of the chart), show similar bodies or beings to
whom the Waɔaɔe or war gentes applied for assistance. These are unknown to
the members of the Tsíɔu gentes. After the female red bird gave bodies to
the Tsíɔu people, the Black Bear found seven skins, which were used for
tents. Subsequently the people discovered four kinds of rocks, which were
the In’qĕ sá*d*e, or black rock; In’qĕ tṵhṵ,(1) or blue (green?) rock;
In’qĕ ɔüʇse, or red rock; and In’qĕ skă, or white rock. Therefore, when a
child is named, four stones are heated for the sweat bath. After finding
the rocks, according to ʞahiʞe-waʇayiñʞa, four buffalo bulls approached
the people, as one of the men was returning to the company. When the first
bull arose after rolling on the ground, an ear of red corn and a red
pumpkin fell from his left hind leg. The leader of the Tsíɔu wactáʞe
noticed them, and asked his younger brother to pick them up and taste
them. The leader of the Bald Eagle subgens did so. Then the elder brother
said: "These will be good for the children to eat. Their limbs will
stretch and increase in strength." When the second bull arose after
rolling, an ear of spotted corn and a spotted pumpkin dropped from his
left hind leg. These, too, were tasted and declared good for the children.
When the third bull arose after rolling, an ear of dark corn and a dark
(black?) pumpkin dropped from his left hind leg. From the left hind leg of
the fourth buffalo dropped an ear of white corn and a white pumpkin.
Therefore, when a child is named in the Tsíɔu gens (alone?) the head man
of that gens (ʞahiʞe-waʇayiñʞa himself, according to his statement) takes
a grain of each kind of corn and a slice of each variety of pumpkin, which
he puts into the mouth of the infant. Ha*d*a-ɔüʇse knew that the four
kinds of rocks were found, "but he could not say in what part of the
tradition the account belonged. He said that subsequently the Waɔaɔe and
Tsíɔu gentes came to the village of the Hañ’ʞa-utá¢anʇse, a very war-like
people, who then inhabited earth lodges. They subsisted on animals, and
bodies of all kinds lay around their village, making the air very
offensive. The Tsíɔu succeeded at last in making peace with the
Hañ’ʞa-utá¢anʇse. After this followed the part of the account given to the
author by ʞahiʞe-waʇayiñʞa:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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