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became discouraged as there was no indication that his candidate would make his ceremonial appearance, and he sold the wa-xo-be to the curio man at Pawhuska. Later the man appeared and and demanded the performance of the ceremony. That was in the early part of last summer. Then there arose a complicated situation since there was no wa-xo-be to "sing over" and a meeting was called by the principal Non-hon-zhin-ga to consult about the best means to overcome the difficulty without a serious breach in the established rule of performing the ceremony. The man to give the initiating ceremony was certainly within his rights. Seven years is the time limited, when that was passed the holder of the wa-xo-be had a right to dispose of it. This the Non-hon-zhin-ga recognized but the passing of the wa-xo-be into the hands of entire strangers complicated matters. After much talk it was decided to give the initiation ceremonies without the wa-xo-be! Thus a precident, a new departure was inaugurated which, were it not for the fact that these rites are fading away, would bring about a new and interesting change in these ancient rites. It would be interesting to know how they performed certain ceremonial forms without the bird but I did not quite feel that it would be right to press the matter. It must have been in pantomime. If I see the man again I will try to get him to give ^ [[insert]] further [[/insert]] details as the change brings about new and curious ideas. The manner of meeting the new condition must be interesting.

At Gray-Horse I had quite an interesting conversation with old Ku'-zhi-wa-tse, the third O-don' man, who is almost deaf as our gate-post, but he was not