4 See "Omaha Sociology," §§ 14-16, 19, 28, 33, 34, 36, 56, 143,
248-258, and passim, in Third Annual Report of the Director of the
Bureau of Ethnology.
5 The literal rendering of the title is "Growth told. Tsi{~LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O~}u Peacemaker
theirs." This may be translated freely by "Revelations of the elders
of the Red Eagle gens."
6 Oin'{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}a weha{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}ice, "The first end of the children" or "The beginning
of the race." This reckoning was backward. The Ponka have a similar
usage: uhange, _an end_; uhange pahanga te, _the first end_ or
_beginning_. Adintau, formed by crasis from a*d*e and intau, may
refer to the words of the old men who have handed down these
traditions. Tsika is unintelligible to the younger Osage of the
present day. One man told the author that he thought it meant, "O
grandfather," being addressed to the principal Wakan{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED T~}a. He said that
it was substituted for another name of that being.
7 The chorus or refrain at the end of each line is omitted in the free
translation, as it would make confusion. If retained, the first four
lines would read thus:
The first of the race: he really said, O grandfather!
He was saying, "Ho, younger brother! the children have no bodies":
he really said, O grandfather!
"We shall seek bodies for our children": he really said, O
grandfather!
"Ho, younger brother! you shall attend to it": he really said, O
grandfather!
8 E{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED K~}i anka refers to the preceding words, which were those of one of
the mythic speakers. He was an ancestor of the Tsi{~LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O~}u gens. Here he
addressed his younger brother. At this time the brothers were
destitute of human souls and bodies, though they possessed conscious
existence and could talk, as well as move about from place to place.