In 1910 Omaha anthropologist Francis La Flesche recorded Saucy Calf singing the songs and reciting the ritual prayers used in his clan’s portion of the sacred songs of the Wa-xo’-be rite of the Osages (figs. 2–3). Saucy Calfs version of the four-day-long rite consisted of ninety songs, six long ritual prayers, and seven symbolic ritual acts called we’-ga-xe. Like all Osage clan priests, Saucy Calf used a tally stick to assist as a memory aid, notched in various places along both of its flat …