DORSEv.) DAIMONISM — FETICHES. 515 



attachiug to them sundry robes or colored blankets. The tradition of 

 this great serpent resembles the Mandan tradition, but with some dif- 

 ferences.' 



§ 347. I>ai)noiusm. — The Hidatsa believe neither a hell nor iu a devil, 

 but believe that there are one or more evil genii, iu female shape, who 

 inhabit this earth, and may harm the Indian in this life, but possess no 

 jjower beyond the grave. Such a power or powors they call Mahopa- 

 miis. The Mahopa-miis dwells in the woods and delights in doing 

 evil. She is supposed to strangle such children as, through parental 

 ignorance or carelessness, are smothered in bed.^ 



FETICHES. 



§ 348. Among the fetiches of the Hidatsa are the skins of every kind 

 of fox and wolf, especially the latter; and, therefore, when they go to 

 war, they always wear the stripe off the back of a wolf skin, with the 

 tail hanging down the shoulders. They make a slit in the skin through 

 flhich the warrior puts his head, so that the skin of the wolf's head 

 liangs down upon his breast. 



Tribal fetiches. — Buffalo heads also are fetiches. In one of their vil- 

 lages they preserved the neck bones of the buffalo, as do the Crow or 

 Absaroka, and this is done with a view to prevent the buffalo herds 

 from removing to too great a distance from them. At times they per- 

 form the following ceremony with these bones: They take a potsherd 

 with live coals, throw sweet-smelling grass upon it, and fumigate the 

 bones with the smoke. 



There are certain trees and stones which are fetiches, as among the 

 Mandan. At such places they offer red cloth, red paint, and other arti- 

 cles to the superhuman powers.^ (See § 334.) 



In the jiriucipal Hidatsa village, when Maximilian visited it, was a 

 long pole set up, on which was a figure of a woman, doubtless repre- 

 senting the Grandmother, who lirst gave them kettles. A bundle of 

 brushwood was hung on the pole, to which were attached the leathern 

 dress and leggins of a woman. The head of the figure was made of 

 Artemisia, and on it was a cap of feathers.* 



§ 349. Personal fetiches. — Matthews uses the term amulet instead of 

 personal fetich, in speaking of the Hidatsa: 



Every man iu this tribe, as iu all ueighboring tribes, has his personal medicine, 

 which is usually some animal. On all war parties, and often on hunts and other ex- 

 cursions, he carries the head, claws, stuffed skin, or other representative of his med- 

 icine with him, and seems to regard it in much the same light that Europeans in 

 former days regarded^and in some cases still regard — protective charms. To insure 

 the fleetness of some promising young colt, they tie to the colt's neck a small piece of 



'Maximilian, Travels ' * * in North America, p. 402. 



" V. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv., Hayden, Miscell. Publ. No. 7. 1877: Ethiiol. nnd Pbilol. oC Hidatsa 

 Indians, pp. 49, 184. 

 ^Maximilian. Travels ^ * " in North America, pp. 399-400. 

 'Ibid. p. 396. 



