516 A STUDY OF SIOUAN CULTS. 



deer or antelope horn. Therodentteethbf the beaver are regarded as potent charms, 

 and are worn by little girls ou their necks to make them industrious.' 



The "Medicine Rock" of the Mandan andHidatsa lias been described 

 in § 329. 



§ 350. Oracles. — Matthews speaks of another oracle, to which the Hi- 

 datsa now often refer, the Makadistati, or house of infants, a cavern 

 near Knife Elver, which they supijosed extended far into the earth, but 

 whose entrance was only a span wide. It was resorted to by the child- 

 less hnsband or the barren wife. There are those among them who im- 

 agine that in some way or other their children come from theMakadis 

 tati; and marks of contusion ou an infant, arising from tight swaddling 

 or other causes, are gravely attributed to kicksreceivedfrom his former 

 comrades when he was ejected from his subterranean home.^ 



§ 351. James says: 



At the distance of the journey of onedayanda half from Knife Creek » • * are 

 two conical hills, separated by about the distance of a mile. One of these hills was 

 supposed to imj)art a prolific virtue to such squaws as resorted to it for the purpose 

 of lamenting their barrenness. A person one day walking near the other hill, fancied 

 he observed on the top of it two very small children. Thinking that they had strayed 

 from the village, he rau towards them to induce them to return home, but they im- 

 mediately fled from him. » * * and in a short time they eluded his sight. Re- 

 turning to the village, the relation of his story excited much interest, and an Indian 

 set out the next day, mounted on a fleet liorse, to take the little strangers. On the 

 approach of this person to the hill he also saw the children, who ran away as before, 

 and though he tried to overtake them by lashing the horse to his utmost swiftness, 

 the children left him far behind. " These children are no longer to be seen, and the 

 hill once of such singular efficacy in rendering the human species prolific has lost this 

 remarkable property.^ 



Matthews* says that this account seems to refer to the Makadistati, 

 but, if such is the case, he believes that the account is incorrect in some 

 respects. 



§ 352. The Hidatsa have much faith in dreams, but usually regard as 

 oracular only those which come after prayer, sacrifice, and fasting.-' 



BERDACHES. 



§ 353. The French Canadians call those men berdaches who dress in 

 women's clothing and perform the duties usually allotted to women in 

 an Indian camp. By most whites these berdaches are incorrectly sup 

 posed to be hermaphrodites. They are called miati by the Hidatsa. 

 from mia, a woman, and the ending, ti, to feel an involuntary incliua 



'Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, p. .'>0. 

 •'DM. p. 51. 



^James's Account of Long's Exped. to Rocky Mountains, vol. I. pp, 274, 27.5. 



'XJ. S. Geol. and Qeogr. Surv., Uayden, Misc.ell. Publ.. No. 7, 1877: Ethuog. and Philol. of Hidatsa 

 Indians, p. 51. 

 *Ibid. p. 50. 



