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Fairfax, Ok.
Jan.20. 1917
My dear M,
There is nothing particular to write about but I write because I want you to know that, at least, I am very well now and free from the effects of the cold and from the rheumatic pains.  The snow is disappearing and the wind is gentle and not chilly -
My host is going this morning to Gray-Horse to try to persuade old Mon-in-'Ka-mon-in to give me the child naming ritual of his gens[[?]], the Pow-ka Wa-shta-ge.  I doubt if he will succeed but there is nothing like trying.  These people are the most superstitious and it is hard for them to realize that the Non-hon-ghim-ya rites are in their last days, in their last gasp.  Yesterday I was talking to Ton-'won-ga-she of the Ni-'Ka-wa-Kon[[?]]da-gi gens and from him I got some curious information, and it was rather pathetic - He is the man who has the office of renewing the painting of the sacred hawk in each Wa-xo'-le[[?]], and my host thought he might remember some of the rituals and advised me to speak to him.  I asked the man if he had sold the Wa-Xo'-h I once asked him to sell to me.  He said that when I offered to buy the relic he had given it away according to the old custom, with a view to initiating the man to whom he presented it but the man, for ten years, was not ready to take the initiation.  He declined to sell me the wa-xo-h, which was still in his possession, because he was still in the hopes of having the ceremony performed.  When I left he