Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 157 



Many years later after the people moved to Fishhook Village, Two Tails' son named 

 Four Bears also had a young wife he got after he was far along in the ceremonies. 

 One day Bear-on-the-Water, a Mandan, stole her and took her to a Man dan 

 hunting camp. Four Bears became very angry and threatened to kill every 

 Mandan in the village. They fled rather than attempt to pacify him with goods 

 and horses. He called the Black Mouth society and liis clansmen to go to the 

 Mandan camp with him for his wife. They went to the camp prepared for war. 

 He went into the tipi where she was hiding, dragged her out by her hair, and beat 

 her for leaving her child who was, according to Four Bears, ill at the time and had 

 no one to care for him. He jabbed her with arrows and beat her with his bow, 

 daring the Mandans to come to her rescue. As the party left the camp, a clans- 

 man named Poor Wolf who was also leader of the Black Mouths at the time, 

 killed a valuable stallion belonging to Bear-on-the-Water's brother. Moves 

 Slowly. Most of the people did not approve of Four Bear's action ; they considered 

 it unworthy of a principal chief. Poor Wolf was in an embarrassing situation, 

 for, only a few years earlier, he had stolen a Mandan's wife and nothing was done 

 about it. Even Four Bear's best friends thought he had given a very poor argu- 

 ment for taking his wife back, since the child had several mothers in the lodge to 

 care for him. [End of Bear Arm's narrative.] 



The position of the older wives in the household was quite different 

 from that of a man's young wife. The older ones were generally the 

 owners of the lodge and the household equipment, the associated 

 gardens, and many of the horses which they had inherited from their 

 mothers and grandmothers within the maternal lineage. They had 

 assisted the husband in his ceremonial activities, prepared goods to 

 be given away on numerous social and ceremonial occasions, had 

 acquired much knowledge of sacred lore while assisting their husband, 

 had borne him children, had prepared feasts for the older men on 

 orders of the husband, and had "walked" with the husband's "fathers" 

 during age-grade purchases or certain ceremonial performances. 

 They had come to take each other more or less for granted. 



Men were, in general, afraid to have love affairs with a woman who 

 had participated often in the ceremonies with her husband. They 

 were even more reluctant to marry her if the husband died. Widows 

 frequently pledged publicly during the funeral rites not to remarry 

 and were not asked to marry thereafter. Women who had obtained 

 considerable knowledge of the husband's sacred rites were viewed as 

 sacred and, therefore, potentially dangerous. This avoidance applied 

 to all men except the deceased man's brothers or those with identical 

 ceremonial rights. When no vow was made during the husband's 

 funeral, some man might desire to marry her. Those not acquainted 

 with her husband's ceremonial rights were said to be foolish to marry 

 her. There are many traditional accounts of those violating the rule 

 by marrying the widow of an important man, only to go insane, blind, 

 or die soon afterward. Hence there were generally a few older 

 widows in most households. 



