DENSMORE] MANDAN AND HIDATSA MUSIC 97 
Analysis Several renditions of this song were recorded, and in 
them all the intonation and time were somewhat wavering. The 
rhythmic unit is short and crisp, but, in accordance with a frequent 
custom, it does not appear in the portion of the song which contains 
the words. Only one interval larger than a minor third occurs in 
the song, this being an ascending fourth. All the tones of the octave 
except the second are used in the song, which is melodic in struc- 
ture and minor in tonality. The song ends on the unaccented 
portion of the measure. (Cf. No. 12.) 
Tue Larrue River WoMEN Socrety ** 
Young girls 12 to 18 years of age joined this society by purchasing 
the songs from women who had been members for about 10 years 
and who thereby retired from participation in the ceremony. A 
woman who “sold the songs” received valuable gifts from the young 
girl to whom she sold them, such gifts usually including a horse or 
a buffalo robe. She also made the headdress worn by the girl at the 
first meeting of the society which she attended. Meetings of the 
society were always held in the spring and might be repeated in the 
fall if some one wished to join the society at that time. Scattered 
Corn, who recorded the ceremonial songs of the society and contrib- 
uted many details to the accompanying description, was a member of 
the society from her sixteenth to her twenty-seventh year. In de- 
scribing the society she mentioned the names of 37 women who were 
members of it during the term of her own membership. Wounded 
Face, who assisted in this narrative, was present when she joined the 
society and was the only person living (in 1915) who attended that 
ceremony. Sitting Rabbit (pl. 15, 6) also was familiar with the 
usage of the society, and contributed information concerning it. — 
ORIGIN OF THE LITTLE RIVER WOMEN SOCIETY 
On the west bank of the Missouri River is a bare peak known as 
Eagle Nose,** and on the opposite bank of the river is another peak. 
In ‘Eagle Nose Peak, as well as in all the buttes and in the trees, 
there used to live certain strange beings called “spirit women.” 
87 This subject was first studied in 1912 with Bear-on-the-flat as informant, Mr. C. 
Hoffman interpreting, the material being translated through the Hidatsa language, as no 
Mandan interpreter was available. Later it was taken up with Seattered Corn, and a 
few days later with Sitting Rabbit, James Holding Eagle interpreting the Mandan lan- 
guage. The account given by all was substantially the same, differing only in details. 
This material was combined and in 1915 was translated into Mandan by James Holding 
Eagle, and was discussed by Scattered Corn and other of the older Mandan. Some 
details were added and the principal songs were recorded a second time (see pp. 100— 
101). <A slightly different origin legend is recorded by Lowie, op. cit., pp.. 341-342. 
88'The native term is translated Bird Beak by Wilson (Hidatsa Agriculture, p. 7), but 
Eagle Nose is the common translation among the writer’s informants. The butte is 
located about 15 miles below the present site of Mandan, N. Dak. 
