1920.] Lowie, Crow Tobacco Society. 151 



date and protect him; it symbolizes safety until the season when the 

 willow shall have green leaves again. The Tobacco bag is taken back 

 by its owner after the ceremony. Gray-bull once remarked that the 

 small bags used on the willowsticks contained Tobacco seeds on which 

 the figure of a star taken to be the morningstar is visible. Such seeds 

 are regarded as especially valuable, being as rare as the four-leafed clover. 



To return to the adoption of July 3, 1910. When the Owner's wife 

 had taken a position at the exit, the musicians drummed and sang a song, 

 at the close of which she made one step forward, only to resume her 

 former position. Two more songs were sung, and at the close of each she 

 pretended to march out in similar fashion. At the end of the fourth 

 song she really made her exit (Fig. 4), followed by the women in single 

 file and then, at an interval of about six feet, by the drummers, all of 

 whom are invariably men. There were about twenty-five women and 

 fifteen men in the procession (Figs. 6, 7). No person was permitted to 

 get in front of the leader. They stopped four times on the way to the 

 adoption lodge and at each stop songs were sung. Each candidate 

 carried a willowstick for which he paid a horse. After the fourth stop 

 the line entered the lodge. In the Strawberry adoption of 1911 the 

 novice, a girl of twelve named Bat dec (She-joins), rode horseback at the 

 tail of the procession, her horse being led by Medicine-crow (Fig. 8). 

 In the old days, Arm-round-the-neck stated, the novice always walked. 

 At one of the performances seen the adoption was by proxy because the 

 child to be initiated was at the Mission school. 



The drummers need not be members of the adopting chapter but 

 must belong to the Tobacco society. The best singers are chosen for the 

 office and receive fees for their services. According to Plent3^-hawk the 

 privilege of drumming on such occasions must have been specially 

 acquired. If all holders of this prerogative were to refuse to act their 

 part, the ceremony could not be performed; on the other hand, the 

 presence of a single duly qualified drummer would suffice. Several men 

 had rattles instead of drums. Gray-bull declared that anciently all the 

 musicians had only rattles but the young people introduced drums. 

 The relative antiquity of rattles in this connection is generally accepted. 

 According to Medicine-crow the drumming is meant to imitate thunder. 

 Gray-bull said that the Wolverenes danced to a peculiar sort of devil's 

 tattoo on the drum, but usually only the men did so. 



Singing at the four stops is another ceremonial prerogative. Each 

 time a different person sings, the drummers take up the song, and the 

 people in the procession dance in position. 



