It should be noted that those Kansa war captains, Pahaⁿle-gaqli and Aliⁿkawahu, belong to gentes on the left side of the tribal circle. They were facing the South before they began the invocations to the various powers including the four winds. See § 200 for the order (E, S, W, N) observed in felling the tree to be used as a sun pole. The same order was observed by the Dakota “priest” in the ceremonies pertaining to the White Buffalo festival of the Hunkpapa, as related by Miss Fletcher: in placing cherries on the plate, in pouring water on the piles of cherries, in placing tufts of swan’s down on the plate[288], in rotating the plate, in circling the heap of black earth[289], and in giving the four pinches of consecrated meat to the four sons of the owner of the white buffalo hide.[290]
§ 368. The Tciɔu old man of the Osage tribe consecrated each mystic hearth by placing four sticks in the form of a cross, beginning at the west, as shown in Fig. 196, then laying the sticks at the north, east, and south, as he named the four mystic buffaloes (§ 33). This Tsiɔu man belonged to the peace side of his tribe, and he began with the quarters referring to the peace elements. But the Paⁿɥka old man of the same tribe, when he consecrated the mystic fireplaces for his half-tribe, began on the right, with the stick at the east, as shown in Fig. 197. He belonged to the war side of the tribe, though his gens was a peace-making gens!
§ 369. The Maⁿyiñka and ṵpaⁿ gentes of the Kansa tribe consecrated the mystic fireplaces for their people; but we have not obtained the particulars of the Kansa ceremony, which probably resembled that in which the Tiɔu and Paⁿɥka old men took part.
According to Two Crows and the late Joseph La Flèche, there were four sacred stones in the custody of the Maⁿȼiñka-gaxe or Earth-lodge-makers’ gens of the Omaha: red, black, yellow, and blue.[291]
§ 370. Whenever the Osage warriors came in sight of their village on returning from an expedition against the enemy, they were met outside the village by the principal man of the Kaⁿe (the Wind or South wind gens.) This Kaⁿe man walked around the warriors, performing a ceremony as he started from the north, repeating it at each quarter, and ending with the east, as shown in Fig. 198.
FIG. 197.—Paⁿɥka (Osage) order of placing the four sticks, etc.
FIG. 198.—Kaⁿse (Osage) order of circumambulation.]