311. Behold the folds in the corners of my eyes. 312. They are not put there without a purpose. 313. I have made them to be a sign of old age. 314. When the little ones make of me their bodies, 315. When they become aged men, 316. They shall see in the corners of their eyes the sign of old age.
317. Behold the tip of my nose. 318. It is not placed there without a purpose. 319. I have placed it there for chasing away other gods. 320. I use it for keeping other gods from entering my house. 321. When the little ones make of me their bodies, 322. They shall use it to chase away other gods, as they travel the path of life.
323. Behold the hair on the crown of my head grown thin. 324. It has not grown thin without a purpose. 325. I have made it to be a sign of old age. 326. When the little ones make of me their bodies, 327. When they become aged men, 328. They shall see in their whitened hair 329. The sign of old age, as they travel the path of life. 330. There comes a time 331. When a calm and peaceful day comes upon me, 332. So there shall come upon the little ones a calm and peaceful day, as they travel the path of life.
The most important wi´-gi-es (recited parts of a ritual) used in the child-naming rituals are those which relate to the life symbols of a gens, such as the sun, the moon, the morning and evening stars, night and day, deer, elk, bear, etc., which are called wa-zho´-i-ga-the, objects of which bodies are made; and those which relate to the personal, sacred names adopted by a gens to be used by its members for their children. The wi´-gi-e relating to the life symbols are usually recited at the beginning of the ceremony. (See wi´-gi-e of the Ṭsi´-zhu Wa-shta-ge gens, p. 60.) The name wi´-gi-es, called Zha´-zhe Ḳi-ṭoⁿ (Zha´-zhe, name; Ḳi-ṭoⁿ, the taking of), are recited when all the Noⁿ´-hoⁿ-zhiⁿ-ga who were invited to take part in the ceremony of the conferring of a name upon a child have assembled. The life-symbol and the name-taking wi´-gi-es are paraphrases of the mythical stories of the origin of the people of a gens. These mythical origin stories are called Ni´-ḳi-e, freely translated, Sayings of the Ancient Men.
Xu-tha´-wa-ṭoⁿ-iⁿ (pl. 7), of the Ṭsi´-zhu Wa-noⁿ gens of the Ṭsi´-zhu great tribal division, recorded the life symbol wi´-gi-e of his gens (see pp. 75-84) but he declined to give the wi´-gi-e of the sacred gens names. However, these names appear in the Wi´-gi-e Ṭoⁿ-ga, Great Wi´-gi-e (36th Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 254-269), which are here given in their order, as follows: