It is probable that they are the property of a secret order, as
they, too, show how some of the gentes descended as birds from the upper
world. The names of the Winnebago gentes and of some members of the tribe
have been recorded by the author, who has also learned parts of their
traditions. He infers that their secret society has not been abolished.
When a man of the Kansa tribe observed that the author had an inkling of
the matter he related part of the tradition of that tribe, explaining the
origin of the names and the taboos of several Kansa gentes. The ancestors
of these gentes were spoken of as birds which descended from an upper
world. The phratries in 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.
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