BESTOWING A NEW NAME
The bestowal of a new name upon an adult generally took place at some tribal ceremony when all the people were gathered together. In this way as much publicity as possible was given to the act. Among the Pawnee tribe there were three requirements that had to be met in order to take a new name:
First, a man could only take a new name after the performance of an act indicative of ability or strength of character;
Second, the name had to be assumed openly in the presence of the people to whom the act it commemorated was known;
Third, it was necessary that it should be announced in connection with such a ritual as that here given.
These three requirements indicate (1) that a man's name stood for what he had shown himself to be by the light of his actions; (2) that this was recognized by his tribesmen, and (3) that it was proclaimed by one having charge of mediatory rites through which man can be approached by the supernatural.
The old priest who gave the following ritual and explained it said: "A man's life is an onward movement. If one has within him a determined purpose and seeks the help of the powers, his life will climb up." Here he made a gesture indicating a line slanting upward; then he arrested the movement and, still holding his hand where he had stopped, went on to say: "As a man is climbing up, he does something that marks a place in his life where the powers have given him an opportunity to express in acts his peculiar endowments; so this place, this act, forms a stage in his career and he takes a new name to indicate that he is on a level different from that he occupied previously." He added: "Some men can rise only a little way, others live on a dead level." He illustrated his words by moving his hands horizontally. "Men having power to advance climb step by step." Again he made his meaning clear by outlining a flight of steps.
The following ritual is recited on the occasion of taking a new name and is a dramatic poem in three parts. The first gives briefly the institution of the rite of changing one's name in consequence of a new achievement; the second shows how the man was enabled to accomplish this act. It begins with his lonely vigil and fast when he cried to the powers for help; the scene then shifts to the circle of the lesser powers, who, in council, deliberate on his petition which makes its way to them and finally wins their consent; then the winds summon the messengers and these, gathering at the command of the lesser powers, are sent to earth to the man crying in lonely places, to grant him his desire. This part closes with a few vivid words which set forth that only by the favor of the powers had the man been able to do the deed. The third part deals with the man's names—the one to be discarded and the one now to be assumed. The ritual is in rhythmic form, impossible to reproduce in English. The following rendition contains nothing which is not in the original text as explained and amplified by the priest.
The ritual was intoned in a loud voice; the man who was to receive a new name stood before the priest where he could be seen by the entire assembly.