In the course of a conversation concerning the gentile names, classed as sky and earth names, Wa-xthi´-zhi, of the Puma gens, remarked that: When the Hoⁿ´-ga people were coming from the sky to the earth they chose two persons (gentes) to act as official messengers. One of these persons was called Hoⁿ´-ga Wa´-ṭse-gi-ṭsi, The-sacred-one-from-the-stars, and the other Hoⁿ´-ga Wa-ṭse-ga-wa, The-sacred-radiant-star. These messengers were expected to find some way of dispersing the waters that submerged the earth and of exposing the ground beneath so as to make it habitable for all living creatures. Wa´-ṭse-gi-ṭsi and Wa´-ṭse-ga-wa, the two messengers, found on the still waters the water spider, the water beetle, the white leech, and the dark leech, of whom they asked for aid which they could not give, but promised to help the people to reach old age. (See 36th Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 163, lines 200 to 273.) The two messengers went on and they met O´-poⁿ-ṭoⁿ-ga, the Great Elk, and appealed to him for aid. The Great Elk threw himself upon the waters four times and splashed about until the ground was exposed and ready to receive men and animals. He then called to the four corners of the earth for the life-giving winds to come. Next he threw himself upon the ground and rolled about; then, as he arose, the hairs of his body clung to the soil and became the grasses of the earth. (See 36th Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 165-167, lines 274 to 354.) The two messengers then led the people over the dry land of the earth, when suddenly Hoⁿ´-ga Wa´-ṭse-gi-ṭsi, The-one-from-the-stars, came upon Iⁿ-gthoⁿ´-ga, the Puma. The messenger then changed his name from Wa´-ṭse-gi-ṭsi to Iⁿ-gthoⁿ´-ga. In like manner the Hoⁿ´-ga Wa´-ṭse-ga-wa, the Radiant Star, came upon Wa-ça´-be, the Black Bear. The Radiant Star then changed his name from Wa´-ṭse-ga-wa to Wa-ça´-be, the Black Bear. These were the first earth names of the two related gentes, the Iⁿ-gthoⁿ´-ga and the Wa-ça´-be. Wa-xthi´-zhi mentioned several other personal earth names of these two gentes but he suggested that the parts of the rituals given by himself and Wa-ṭse´-moⁿ-iⁿ (pl. 5), in which are mentioned the earth names, be referred to as authoritative, and so the following paraphrases of those parts of the rituals are here given. EARTH NAME WI´-GI-ES (WA-XTHI´-ZHI)