1920.] Lowie, Crow Tobacco Society. 197 



wir Medicine-Tanze der Weiber, wo die eine vorgab, sie habe eine Mayskolbe im 

 Leibe, welche sie hervor tanzte, und die man nachher mit Wermuth wieder hmein 

 compiimentirte. Eine andere warf Blut aus; jedoch hiervon weiter unten. 1 



Maximilian actually witnessed the exhibition of a corncob at an Hidatsa 

 assemblage of medicine-women. 2 



The Blackfoot and the Sarsi are the only tribes which share with the 

 Crow a ceremonial planting of the Tobacco. 3 As might be expected, the 

 relationship between the Blackfoot and Sarsi performances is far deeper 

 than that between the Blackfoot and the Crow rituals. In both the 

 northwestern tribes the planting is connected with the Beaver medicine 

 bundle, in both appears the detail of an offering of little moccasins, in 

 both the Tobacco is smoked. None of these features appears among the 

 Crow, 4 while their elaborate organization remains without parallel 

 among the Sarsi and Blackfoot. It is true that Curtis speaks of a Beaver 

 fraternity, but Wissler specifically denies that the bundle owners con- 

 stituted a society. This discrepancy might of course be reduced to a 

 mere difference in terminology. However, the significant fact remains 

 that the Beaver bundle owners certainly form no organization compar- 

 able with the Crow bacusud. The Blackfoot have no adoption ceremony 

 and the conditions of entrance are quite different. A Blackfoot becomes 

 a Beaver man by a simple purchase through which proprietary rights 

 are relinquished by the seller. Among the Crow there is no such transfer 

 of membership : the tyro does not supersede his initiator but becomes an 

 additional member of the chapter. Further, the Blackfoot have none 

 of those subdivisions and special ceremonial prerogatives which are so 

 highly characteristic of the Tobacco society. The identification of the 

 Tobacco with the stars is another distinctively Crow feature. 



The analogies that connect the Crow and Blackfoot performances 

 are all associated with the planting itself: its ceremonial character 

 (as contrasted with the purely secular planting of, say, the Hidatsa) ; 

 the mixing of the seed with animal droppings ; the burning on the plot ; 

 and the inspection of the growing plants. 5 These resemblances suffice to 

 establish ultimate community of origin for the practice, but we must re- 

 member that there is no wholesale parallelism between the rituals as now 

 practised. 



iMaximilian, II, 190. Cf. Kroeber, 434f.; Wissler, 80. 



'ibid, II, 269 f. 



3 Goddard, 225-227; Grinnell, 268-271; Wissler, vol. 7, this series, 171, 200-204; Curtis, vol. 6 

 59, 76-79. 



4 There are occasional references to beaver medicines e.g., the Tobacco chapter was said to have 

 held such but they are far less frequent than those to sacred weasel or otter bundles. No-shinbone 

 mentioned a Beaver chapter, whose members danced with beaver skins, kneeling during some songs and 

 rising for others. Cf. also Crane-bear's origin tale (p. 178). 



5 It is of course possible that the songs have a common origin, but the words recorded do not suggest 

 a direct connection. 



