fletchkr] A PA WNEE RITUAL 83
rites of the tribe, that they might be preserved as a part of the history of the American race.
For many years both Mr La Flesche and myself have been aware of the store of wealth hidden in the sacred ceremonies of the Pawnee, and have sought means to rescue it from impending loss. This year we were happy in being able to avail ourselves of the cooperation of Mr James R. Murie, an educated Pawnee, known to us for over sixteen years. He brought to Washington, as our guest, a venerable priest who had never before been east of the Mississippi, and was now induced to make the long journey in his old age that he might honor the memory of his early friend, the head-chief of the Omaha, by placing in the keeping of the son some knowledge of the fast-disappearing ceremonies of his tribe.
This priest was the principal keeper of a certain cult of the Pawnee, but its elaborate ceremonies and rituals formed only a part of the wealth stored in his tenacious memory. He was versed in the traditions and customs of his people, as well as in the usages of several quasi-religious societies of which he was a member. He was a man of much natural ability, mentally alert, quick to observe, and gifted with boundless patience and good nature. While he was childlike and trusting, he had a keen discernment of character, and a shrewd, common-sense way of looking at men and things. He was not indifferent to the changes that have overtaken his race, changes which have swept away the old landmarks and imposed on the people new modes of living and forced them to new ways of thinking ; but these unmistakable in- dications of the rapidity with which aboriginal conditions are dying out failed to disconcert him, and even when they were augmented by fresh evidences, which daily confronted him at the capital, of the resources and dominant power of the white race, the convictions implanted in his mind by his religious training remained undisturbed.
When urged to take up his abode in a frame cottage on the
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