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