1 14 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXI, 



with their essential resemblances that I am advisedly designating the 

 individual groups as 'chapters' of one 'society' rather than as so many 

 distinct societies though the native term araxua'tse would justify this 

 designation, since it is also applied to the military societies. In recent 

 times some chapters that were once distinct have united from paucity 

 of members in one or both of them. 



Altogether I secured something like thirty names of Tobacco chap- 

 ters, but it would be a very serious error to suppose that even approxi- 

 mately that number ever existed at one time in one of the local divisions. 

 The largest series of sixteen was given by Muskrat, but four of her 

 names, tsipaxl'oce (Ground-bug?), Squirrel, Wild Cat, Bear, occur in no 

 other list ; Old-dog enumerated thirteen chapters, among them those 

 named after Red Paint and a species of hawk, which are peculiar to his 

 account; One-horn's thirteen include a Rattle chapter which no one 

 else referred to except by way of identifying it with the Buffalo; while 

 of, Medicine-crow's eleven the Cranes figure in no other report. From 

 what we know of the history of the Tobacco society we may infer that 

 these names were either restricted to a particular period or locality or are 

 simply synonyms of names occurring in the other lists, or represent 

 groups of members linked rather than distinct. For example, the 

 Crazy Dogs from all accounts represent merely a segregation from the 

 Weasel chapter without loss of the sentiment of solidarity. The Straw- 

 berries, at least in Lodge Grass, came to supersede the Otters in the 

 manner described below; and the Tobacco chapter is likewise affiliated 

 in some manner with them. Grandmother's-knife links the Eggs with 

 the Ducks, while Medicine-crow explains that while originally the Eggs, 

 Ducks and Prairie-Chickens were distinct they now form only one chap- 

 ter, the Ducks. Crane-bear said that his group was first designated as 

 Prairie-chicken dancers, but that after the Egg vision of a member (see p. 

 126) the name was changed accordingly. Shot-in-the-hands regards 

 the Prairie Dogs and Yellow Tobacco people as forming one chapter. 



A priori it is of course extremely probable that such processes of 

 separation and absorption as can be traced for the period of the last 

 half century have been going on for many years previous. Thus it is 

 not easy to speculate as to the early constitution of the society. The 

 oldest informant, Strikes-both-ways, a woman of about one hundred 

 years of age, enumerated five Tobacco chapters that existed in her day : 

 the Weasels, Otters, Elks, White Birds, and Tobacco chapter. Gray- 

 bull, a generation younger, gave the Prairie-chicken, Otter, Weasel, 

 Duck, and Tobacco chapters. Mr. Curtis lists the Tobacco, Weasel, 



