1920.] Lowie, Crow Tobacco Society. 165 



Shot-in-the-hand (1911) said that in the Bighorn district the otter 

 had been, formerly carried by the Medicine-bearer, but that in recent 

 times after the death of a certain woman owning this medicine another 

 person had been chosen to carry a pipe instead. He added that a 

 male Mixer who had dreamt of the site had twice been Medicine-bearer 

 in his district. 



After the musicians in the preparatory lodge of the Medicine-bearer's 

 chapter have sung the fourth song the Leader, who according to Pretty- 

 tail is the Owner of an adoption lodge, must walk round the inside of the 

 lodge before conducting the chapter outdoors. First come the other 

 women, all of whom form a line standing abreast of one another, next 

 come the men of this chapter with their drums and stand to the right of 

 the women, the women of the next chapter take positions to the right 

 of the Medicine-bearer's men, and so on, until all the members of the 

 society have formed a horizontal line. Another statement makes all 

 the women stand together, though segregated by chapters, and all the 

 men, similarly subdivided, to the right of them. 



I will follow Pretty-tail's account. The procession starts. They 

 walk a short distance towards the site of the garden, then they halt. 

 Everyone sits down, the women laying their medicine bags before them, 

 and the men sitting behind the women in a long row Pretty-tail, the 

 Medicine-bearer's husband, takes a pipe, fills it with tobacco and offers it 

 to each man in turn, but everyone declines to take it. 1 This occupies about 

 half an hour. At last one man accepts the pipe, smokes it, and passes 

 it to the rest. The women put on their bags and the men pick up their 

 drums. The smoker and his wife stand up in front of the women, facing 

 the Leader. Pretty-tail approaches the Leader and informs her that the 

 smoker has smoked and is ready to sing. The man sings his song in a 

 low voice to teach it to the musicians, who then sing it aloud and beat 

 their drums, while the women dance. After four songs the procession re- 

 sumes its march. After a while the Medicine-bearer halts and a similar 

 procedure is followed. This is repeated at a third stop. At the fourth 

 station they are about a hundred (others say three hundred) yards from 

 the site, while Strikes-in-the-house, the Medicine-bearer, is within fifty 

 feet of the ground. She must never look backwards but calls to a member 

 adopted by her to remove the medicine from her back. All the other 

 members get some fast runner to take their medicines. After the singing 

 of four songs these runners begin to race to the site. When they arrive, 



1 Simms (332) explains that to smoke is equivalent to the sacrifice of the smoker's life so that the 

 Tobacco may grow and that some great misfortune would befall him if the crop failed. 



