THE CHILD IS PASSED FROM GENS TO GENS TO BE BLESSED
At the close of the simultaneous recital of the wi´-gi-es by the Noⁿ´-hoⁿ-zhiⁿ-ga of the six gentes, namely, the Wa´-ṭse-ṭsi, Tho´-xe, Noⁿ´-poⁿ-da, Çiⁿ´-dse-a-gthe, I´-ba-ṭse, and the Ṭsi´-zhu Wa-shta-ge, the Sho´-ḳa carries the infant to the head of the Wa´-ṭse-ṭsi gens, who takes it in his arms, then, dipping the tips of the fingers into a wooden vessel, in which had been put sacred water and red cedar fronds, he gently touches with his moistened fingertips the lips, head, arms, and body of the little one. This ceremonial act is an appeal to Wa-ḳoⁿ´-da to grant to the little one health and strength so that it may grow to maturity and old age without interruption by disease.
The child is next taken by the Sho´-ḳa to the head of the Noⁿ´-poⁿ-da gens, who blesses it in the same manner with the symbolic water and cedar fronds.
Then the little one is taken to the head of the I´-ba-ṭse gens, who touches the lips, head, arms and body of the child with pounded corn, besides the sacred water and cedar fronds. The touching of the child with the life-giving corn is an act of appeal to Wa-ḳoⁿ´-da that the child be not permitted to suffer for want of food during its life, so that it may reach maturity and old age without difficulty. The gentile symbol of the I´-ba-ṭse gens is the wind but it was authorized by the Tho´-xe gens to use the corn ritual in its child-naming ritual.
The Sho´-ḳa takes the little one from the I´-ba-ṭse to the head of the Tho´-xe, Buffalo-bull, gens. In the mythical story of the origin of the maize it was Tho´-xe, Buffalo-bull, who gave to the people the maize and the squash. (See 36th Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 279-281, lines 54 to 110.) The head of the Tho´-xe gens takes the little one in his arms and blesses it with the sacred water and cedar fronds as did the Wa´-ṭse-ṭsi, then, mixing some of his own pounded corn with that of the I´-ba-ṭse, he blesses the child with the sacred corn, the life symbol of his own gens. The ceremonial act of the Tho´-xe is an expression of the wish that the life-giving corn will aid the new member of the Ṭsi´-zhu Wa-shta-ge gens to successfully reach maturity and old age.