DENSMORE] MANDAN AND HIDATSA MUSIC 39 
one part of the pipe and that on the south by the other part, but 
they are joined together as one.” 
SOCIETIES ORGANIZED BY GOOD FUR ROBE 
Tuer Gooszk WomMEN Socrery 
Good Fur Robe organized this society and it is said to have been 
~“holy,” because Good Fur Robe was at the head of it and he was a 
“holy man” (priest). He selected certain women as the first mem- 
bers of the society and divided them into two companies, telling one 
company to paint their mouths black and the other to paint their 
mouths blue. He also gave them certain songs and told them how 
to conduct their ceremony. He said this society would “look after 
the corn,” and that if there were an early frost the Goose Women 
_must bring presents to him so that he could prevent damage to the 
crop. Good Fur Robe told the man whom he trained as his succes- 
sor that he must sing with the Goose Women when they danced 
and select two others to sing with him. In later years four men 
sometimes sang at the dances of the Goose Women. In addition to 
their duties in connection with the corn and the holding of a cere- 
mony in the spring, the Goose Women were believed to have special 
powers for good. Thus, if a child were ailing, its parents took 
presents to the Goose Women, and it is said that after a time the 
child grew straight and sturdy as the young corn. If a young 
man were going on the warpath he might betake himself to the 
Goose Women and ask them to give him success. The exact nature 
of their help was not ascertained except that they “sang hymns 
which were prayers.” From the time of Good Fur Robe until the 
old customs were lost in the life of civilization this gentle sisterhood 
was perpetuated, being an honored and important part of the tribal 
organization. Young girls of suitable temperament were selected 
and trained for membership, the Goose Women watching constantly 
for those adapted to a place among them. 
The character and traditional origin of the society is thus empha- 
sized in order, so far as possible, to vivify the early life of the 
Mandan. The writer’s informants did not indicate the Goose 
Women as an age society in the usual acceptance of the term. Lowie 
states that “it is evident that the Goose Society is of a distinctly 
more religious character than either the Skunk or the Enemy So- 
ciety,°* and presents a detailed study of the organization.” Maxi- 
milian lists it only as an Hidatsa organization, describing it ‘as a 
medicine feast under the name of “the corn dance feast of the 
56 Lowie, Societies of the Hidatsa and Mandan Indians, p. 338. 
57 {bid., pp. 323, 830-338. 
