Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 123 



to interfere, especially if the man was not a good provider or was 

 not the owner of important sacred bundles. The Hidatsa have a 

 saying that "a woman won't take much abuse from her husband 

 if she has many brothers." Other times one will hear them say, 

 "She was saucy to her last husband too because she had many 

 brothers and now she is a widow again." Nevertheless, a husband 

 could make certain demands of his wife that even her brothers would 

 not question. Should her husband whip her for failing to perform 

 her duties, the brothers were unlikely to do anything about it. 



Sister-in-Law-Sistek-in-Law 



In this class are the females the husband calls "sister" and the 

 wives of those men she addresses as "older brother." It was cus- 

 tomary to distinguish age by classifying the spouse of a younger 

 "brother" as a daughter-in-law when the difiference in their ages 

 was 10 years or more. There was mutual assistance between sisters- 

 in-law, irrespective of their residence. They normally were in 

 different households but, in any instance, helped each other, working 

 on robes, or cm'ing meat while out with hunting parties. When a 

 man prepared food and goods for a ceremony, his principal assistants 

 were his wives and his sisters. They shared the confidence and 

 respect of a common man. Returning from the hunt, each should 

 be cared for; finding his wife out visiting, he would go to his sister's 

 lodge to eat. 



Brother-in-Law-Sister-in-Law 



A woman classified as brother-in-law all males her husband classified 

 as "older brother" and "younger brother," and the husbands of 

 women she classified as "older sister" and "younger sister." By the 

 extension of the kinship system, a female had many brothers-in- 

 law and a male had many sisters-in-law. By the operation of the 

 sororate and levirate, all of a woman's "brothers-in-law" were poten- 

 tial husbands, and all of a man's "sisters-in-law" were potential wives. 

 Rarely, however, did a blood brother assume the duties of a deceased 

 brother, chiefly because he was usually already married into a dif- 

 ferent household. If he was getting along well there he would be 

 likely to invite trouble since jealousies would be sure to arise. A 

 single man would often be teased by his joking relatives, but if he 

 was attached to his brother's children more than to some young 

 unmarried woman he would usually take his brother's widow in 

 order to provide for the children. It was usually a more distant 

 "brother," however, who married the widow. Instances of marriage 

 to a deceased wife's younger sister were even more rare, chiefly 

 because seldom were any available. If the family intended to have 



