Here unto you has been spoken the truth;
  Because of this truth you shall stand. 
  Here declared is the truth;
  Here in this place has been shown you the truth. 
  Therefore, arise!  Go forth in its strength!

As the priest sang the last line he set the child on its feet and made it take four steps toward the East; these steps are typical of its now entering into life.  Then the priest led the child to the entrance of the tent, where he called aloud the tribal name of the child, then for the first time proclaimed, adding: 

“Ho!  Ye Hills, ye Grass, ye Trees, ye creeping things, both great and small, I bid you hear!  This child has thrown away its baby name!  Ho!”

All the children of the tribe passed through this ceremony and in this way received their sacred personal names, which were never dropped throughout their after-life, not even when a man took a new name.

BESTOWING A NEW NAME

The bestowal of a new name upon an adult generally took place at some tribal ceremony when all the people were gathered together.  In this way as much publicity as possible was given to the act.  Among the Pawnee tribe there were three requirements that had to be met in order to take a new name: 

First, a man could only take a new name after the performance of an act indicative of ability or strength of character;

Second, the name had to be assumed openly in the presence of the people to whom the act it commemorated was known;

Third, it was necessary that it should be announced in connection with such a ritual as that here given.

These three requirements indicate (1) that a man’s name stood for what he had shown himself to be by the light of his actions; (2) that this was recognized by his tribesmen, and (3) that it was proclaimed by one having charge of mediatory rites through which man can be approached by the supernatural.

The old priest who gave the following ritual and explained it said:  “A man’s life is an onward movement.  If one has within him a determined purpose and seeks the help of the powers, his life will climb up.”  Here he made a gesture indicating a line slanting upward; then he arrested the movement and, still holding his hand where he had stopped, went on to say:  “As a man is climbing up, he does something that marks a place in his life where the powers have given him an opportunity to express in acts his peculiar endowments; so this place, this act, forms a stage in his career and he takes a new name to indicate that he is on a level different from that he occupied previously.”  He added:  “Some men can rise only a little way, others live on a dead level.”  He illustrated his words by moving his hands horizontally.  “Men having power to advance climb step by step.”  Again he made his meaning clear by outlining a flight of steps.