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



supernatural being exacts from the adoptive son merely obedience to 

 instructions; these often contain a promise that he shall reap material 

 benefit through adopting others or at least by letting others participate 

 in his power (see p. 130). What happens, then, in the Tobacco society, 

 is entirely deducible from these basic conceptions. The visionary who 

 has seen specific variations in the ceremonial adopts men and women, 

 who thus come to participate in the blessings granted, pay compensa- 

 tion, and are in return empowered to ordain, as it were, new members. 

 But, instead of remaining so many individuals separately enjoying the 

 fruits of adoption, they join cooperatively to plant the Tobacco and 

 promote its growth. It is simply the bond of permanent association 

 uniting adopted individuals that distinguishes the Tobacco society from a 

 hundred cases of individual adoption in Crow myth and ceremonial 

 practice. The conception that ceremonial privileges can be bought, 

 indeed, that purchase is the normal and orthodox way of acquiring them, 

 is of course common in North America and appears in identical form 

 among the Blackfoot. 



There are several other widely distributed ritualistic elements that 

 appear in the Tobacco complex. The sweatlodge performance is under- 

 gone in the manner characteristic of the Crow procedure on other occa- 

 sions. Four figures conspicuously as the mystic number, notably in the 

 procession to the adoption lodge. The recital of coups is a highly char- 

 acteristic intrusive feature and recalls the part taken by war captains in 

 the Sun dance. Finally, the vow found in connection with other Crow 

 rituals to join the society on condition of one's own or a relative's recovery 

 from illness (or some other favorable turn of events) strongly recalls the 

 ceremonial usages of various Plains tribes, such as the Blackfoot and 

 Arapaho. 



One feature that occurs in the accounts of several of the chapters 

 is especially interesting, the batsir&pe motive. Among the Crow it 

 appears most prominently in a dance known as the Bear Song dance, at 

 which all those with animals inside their bodies are supposed to demon- 

 strate the fact by having a buffalo protrude its tail through the dancer's 

 mouth, an eagle its wing feathers, etc. I do not know the distribution 

 of this notion and the correlated practices. Wissler notes something 

 similar among the Blackfoot and among the Mandan and Hidatsa they 

 were recorded by Maximilian, who writes as follows : 



Sehr viele Mandans und Monnitarris glauben, dass sie lebende Thiere im Leibe 

 haben, der eine ein Bisonkalb, dessen Ausschlagen er ofters fiihle, andere Schild- 

 kroten, Frosche, Eidechsen, einen Vogel und dergleichen. Bei den Monnitarris sahen 



