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



gave her a dream and told her she was a woman but that if they got home in safety 

 they should join the Tobacco and take the lead in going to the garden. "We'll get 

 home in safety, your people are in such and such a place." She went on till she got 

 to the Crow. When home, she thought she would join in the Tobacco dance. This 

 was above where Yellow-crane's land now is. The Tobacco dance was started, and 

 the woman went there with her otter. She said to the members: "I'll tell you some- 

 thing now. Don't ask me anything. You have no leader and it does not look right. 

 We 1 shall be the leaders, and some good will come of it. When a. captive among the 

 Piegan, I saw how great this medicine was and decided to steal it and run away. A 

 snowstorm caught me, and in the night the otter spoke to me. He told me I was a 

 woman so he could not do much for me, but he would be leader with me. Do not start 

 tomorrow; I shall send a hunter to bring a buffalo head, then I shall have hair cut to 

 stuff the otter with. 2 We'll start the following day." After she had the skin stuffed, 

 she went into the lodge where they were dancing and had twelve eagle feathers 

 brought there. These she took and tied them below the otter's neck, then put a crown 

 of ground-cedar on her head, donned a robe, and held the otter in her arm. 



After a while she had a daughter. This girl was adopted into the Tobacco society, 

 and when she married, her mother gave her the otter. Thus the daughter came to 

 take her mother's place in the Tobacco procession. When the man who had adopted 

 the daughter died, she mourned for him, going about crying near prairie-dog holes. 

 She saw the prairie-dogs performing the Tobacco dance, with their chins painted red 

 and with curlew feathers in the back of their heads. She was carrying the otter in. 

 her arms. Now she saw how a leader should paint. She was a young woman at this 

 time. She adopted a male captive named Half-red and told him to get a lodge. 

 This had always been handed down; she bade him take one not handed down before. 3 

 A man had adopted both Flat-dog's 4 father and the woman adopting Half-red. This 

 woman asked Flat-dog's father to turn over the lodge to her ' son,' who thus became 

 the third owner. This happened in my lifetime. The woman got to be very old, so 

 old her body would crack when she moved about. Then she turned the otter over 

 to her daughter, bidding her lead as she had done before. This woman was the 

 mother of Paints-himself-black. I do not know who has the otter now. 



Originally ten horses were paid for adoption lodges. Today the price includes 

 only one horse and four different objects. The chin and two spots under the eyes 

 were formerly painted red bv lodge-owners. Later, they did not paint thus any more, 

 but instead painted the forehead red, streaked the face with the same color, and 

 bunched up the hair of the head and tied it. Lately white clay has been used for 

 painting. 



The account quoted may not be strictly accurate even for the more 

 recent period of the development of the Tobacco ceremony, yet it 

 certainly reflects very well a number of characteristic Crow conceptions. 

 Foremost among these is the view entertained as to the mode of acquiring 

 ceremonial privileges. Invariably originating in a vision or dream, 



'That is, she and the otter. 



2 Previously there had been veryl ittle stuffing among the Piegan, but the woman developed this 

 feature (Crane-bear). 



3 TMs statement is obscure. 



< Flat-dog was still living in 19 14. 



