n that tribe, the "Wa-yun min-'dun," or "(Those who)
sing together," refer to mystic songs and strengthen the view that the
secret society exists among these Indians. Several members of the tribe
have positively stated its existence.

As one phratry is composed of the two gentes, Large and Small Hanka, that
have the sole right to sing the war songs, time may show that these songs,
which, with their chart of pictographs(23), are used by the Osage, are
substantially those of the seventh degree in the Osage society. This is
rendered the more probable by the fact that the Kansa have grouped their
gentes in seven phratries, just the number of the degrees in the society.
And this arrangement by sevens is the rule among Osage, Kansa, Ponka,
Omaha, and Dakota, though there are apparent exceptions.

Further investigation may tend to confirm the supposition that in any
tribe which has mythic names for its members and its social divisions (as
among the Osage, Kansa, Quapaw, Omaha, Ponka, Iowa, Oto, Missouri, Tutelo,
and Winnebago), or in one which has mythic names only for its members and
local or other names for its social divisions (as among the Dakota,
Assiniboin, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Crow), there are now or there have been
secret societies or "The Mysteries."

FOOTNOTES

1 The sound of this inverted u, between o and u, as well as the sounds
of other letters used in this article, except that of the inverted {~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED H~}
(which is a sound approximating ch in the German word ich), is to be
found on page 206, Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.

2 It is probable, however, that the Pan{~LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED H~}ka (Ponka) man began with the
stick at the east, as he must use the right hand and foot first.

3 Meaning uncertain; it may refer to the female or doe.

4 See "Omaha Sociology,"