Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGAOTZATION 133 



were not doing right and scold them. Frequently he was an older 

 brother by the extension of the kinship system to include males of the 

 same clan. Finding the boys playing rough or teasing the girls, he 

 would seize one of his own clan and duck him in the river or hit him 

 with a strap saying, "This is the way I hit the enemy." They would 

 say that boys who fought with the girls would not be brave in battle. 



Older brothers, particularly the mother's brothers, were the ones to 

 prepare the younger ones for their first fasting. The first fasting was 

 customarily begun at the age of 7 or 8 years. It was customary for 

 a boy of that age to accompany a brother a few years older to the 

 ceremonial grounds and stay with him. Advice and direction was 

 given by a brother who had fasted often. A boy 7 or 8 years old 

 would be afraid to attend alone, but it was considered great sport to 

 fast if accompanied by an older brother. Seeing that his son was 

 making plans for his first fasting, the father would take some object 

 from one of his sacred bundles and place it on a stick to be set up in 

 front of his son at the ceremonial lodge. Relatives — father's and 

 mother's — would praise him and call his name as he walked to the 

 ceremonial grounds, saying that he would surely be a brave man 

 when he grew up. The household would bring presents to the cere- 

 monial grounds and give them to people of the boy's father's clan 

 who, in turn, would pray for the success of the "son." Small boys 

 were not expected to stay at the ceremonial grounds for the entire 4 

 days but they were expected to stay for a short time. Usually most 

 of the small boys had left the ceremony by the end of the first day. 

 On future occasions, they would stay for 2 or even 3 days. By the 

 time a boy was 15 or 16 years of age, fasting was taken more seriously, 

 for he was then reaching the age when he should be going out on his 

 first war expedition. Fasting introduced a boy to a new set of rela- 

 tives, particularly the "ceremonial" fathers; the prominent men of 

 his father's clan. 



When the boys reached the age of 11 or 12 years, they would run 

 in gangs chasing the girls. The older brothers would criticize the 

 younger ones for dressing up in their finest clothes and watching the 

 girls all the time when they should be fasting or caring for the horses. 

 At this age, boys often made a great deal of trouble around the village. 

 Those who took little interest in training for warfare would dress in 

 their best clothes and loaf around the village or at the trading posts 

 watching for the girls. The girls were taught not to be intimate with 

 these boys for they would be poor hunters and have no war records. 

 Nevertheless, gangs of boys would watch for guis to catch them alone. 

 It was considered great sport to catch a girl who was being watched 

 especially closely by her female relatives. Girls would be scolded for 

 carrying on an affair with the boys, while nothing was usually said to 



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