Fig. 15.—Iñke-sabě style of wearing the hair.
§ 31. Subgentes and Taboos.—There has evidently been a change in the subgentes since the advent of the white man. In 1878, the writer was told by several, including La Flèche, that there were then three subgentes in existence, Wa¢ígije, Watan´zi-jíde ¢atájĭ, and Naq¢é-it`abájĭ the fourth, or Íekí¢ě, having become extinct. Now (1882), La Flèche and Two Crows give the three subgentes as follows: 1. Wa¢ígije; 2. Niníba t`an; 3. (a part of 2) Íekí¢ě. The second subgens is now called by them "Watan´zi-ji´de ¢atájĭ and Naq¢é ít`abájĭ." "[T]an¢in-nanba and Nágu or Wa¢ánase are the only survivors of the real Niniba-t`an, Keepers of the Sacred Pipes." (Are not these the true Naq¢é-ít`ábájĭ, They who cannot touch charcoal? I. e., it is not their place to touch a fire-brand or the ashes left in the sacred pipes after they have been used.) "The Sacred Pipes were taken from the ancestors of these two and were given into the charge of Ickadabi, the paternal grandfather of Gahige." Yet these men are still called Niniba-t`an, while "Gahige belongs to the Watanzi-jide ¢atajĭ and Naq¢e-it`abajĭ, and he is one of those from whom the Iekí¢ě could be selected."
In 1878 La Flèche also gave the divisions and taboos of the Iñke-sabě as follows: "1. Niniba-t`an; 2. Watanzi-jide ¢atajĭ 3. [T]e-hé-sábě it`ájĭ 4. [T]e-¢éze¢atájĭ" but he did not state whether these were distinct subgentes. The [T]e-he-sabě it`ajĭ, Those who touch not black horns (of buffaloes), appear to be the same as the [T]e-¢eze ¢atajĭ, i. e., the Wa¢ígije. The following is their camping order: In the tribal circle, the Wa¢ígije camp next to the Hañga gens, of which the Wacabe people are the neighbors of the Wa¢igije, having almost the same taboo. The other Iñke-sabě people camp next to the Wejincte gens. But in the gentile "council-fire" a different order is observed; the first becomes last, the Wa¢igije having their seats on the left of the fire and the door, and the others on the right.
Fig. 16.—The Iñke-sabě Gentile Assembly.A.—The Wa¢igije, or Waqúbe gáxe aká, under Duba-man¢in. B.—The Watanzi-jide ¢atajĭ the Ieki¢ě, and the Naq¢e-it`abajĭ. These were under Gahige.
The Wa¢igije cannot eat buffalo tongues, and they are not allowed to touch a buffalo head. (See §§ [37], [49], and [50].) The name of their subgens is that of the hooped rope, with which the game of "[P]a¢in-jahe" is played. Gahige told the following, which is doubted by La Flèche and Two Crows: "One day, when the principal man of the Wa¢igije was fasting and praying to the sun-god, he saw the ghost of a buffalo, visible from the flank up, arising out of a spring. Since then the members of his subgens have abstained from buffalo tongues and heads."
Gahige's subgens, the Watanzi-jide ¢atajĭ, do not eat red corn. They were the first to find the red corn, but they were afraid of it, and would not eat it. Should they eat it now, they would have running sores all around their mouths. Another tradition is that the first man of this subgens emerged from the water with an ear of red corn in his hand.
The Ieki¢ě are, or were, the Criers, who went around the tribal circle proclaiming the decisions of the chiefs, etc.
Prior to 1878, Wacuce, Gahige's brother, was the keeper of the two sacred pipes. At his death, in that year, his young son succeeded him as keeper; but, as he was very young, he went to the house of his father's brother, Gahige, who subsequently kept the pipes himself.
§ 32. Gahige said that his subgens had a series of Eagle birth-names, as well as the Buffalo birth-names common to the whole gens. This was owing to the possession of the sacred pipes. While these names may have denoted the order of birth some time ago, they are now bestowed without regard to that, according to La Flèche and Two Crows.