DENS:MORE] MANDAN AND HIDATSA MUSIC 7 
These stories have nothing in common and are related by the same 
individual with no attempt at correlation. Thus Scattered Corn said 
that her father (Moves Slowly) was the last man who could relate 
in its entirety the “long story about First Man”; she said that she 
knew it somewhat imperfectly, but related in detail the story of the 
tribe’s ascent through a hole in the ground. Both were recorded 
by Maximilian, details were added by Catlin and by Lewis and Clark. 
and versions differing in slight degrees have appeared in recent 
times. The longer story is a creation myth, summarized as fol- 
lows: Lord of Life created First Man, who in turn created the earth 
from mud brought by a duck from the bottom of the sea. A. dispute 
arose between Lord of Life and First Man as to which should 
address the other as father, and they made what might be termed 
a test of immortality. In some versions Lord of Life was victorious, 
while in a version given in connection with song No. 21 of the pres- 
ent work the result of the contest was indeterminate. The con- 
testants in this form of the legend were Old Man Coyote and Cedar 
Post. From this point the story concerns the shaping of the land 
and its populating with man and animals. The shorter story states 
that the Mandan lived beneath the earth. The roots of a grape- 
vine grew down to their abode and admitted the light. With the help 
of various animals this hole was enlarged and the people climbed up 
the grapevine to this earth. About half the people had ascended, 
when a very corpulent woman broke the vine. Thus a portion of the 
tribe remained below. It is said this happened “near a lake, to the 
east.” Good Fur Robe was their chief when they came upon this 
earth, and he taught them how to live in their new surroundings. 
Besides these stories there are a number of unrelated legends, 
such as the legends concerning Old Woman Who Never Dies and 
the origin of the tribal societies. 
Music 
The music of the Mandan and Hidatsa is fully considered in this 
paper; the following comments by early travelers are, however, of 
interest in this connection. John Bradbury, of England, who went 
to Fort Berthold in the early part of the nineteenth century, wrote 
as follows concerning the singing of the “Aricaras, Mandans, and 
Minetarees, or Gros Ventres”: “I observed that their voices were 
in perfect unison, and although, according to our ideas of music, 
there was neither harmony nor melody, yet the effect was pleasing, 
as there evidently was system, all the changes of tone being as 
exactly conformable in point of time as if only one voice had been 
heard.” Catlin, who visited them about 25 years later, made this 
” Bradbury, Travels in the Interior of America, p. 116. 
