180 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



interest in their training. If the number of boys in the household 

 was small, boys of related households frequently were invited to 

 participate. When my informants were children (about 1865) 

 one group of boys dressed in small robes with magpie feathers in 

 their hair, and were frequently nicknamed Magpies. The man 

 who served as singer owned a sacred bundle of Woman Above who 

 was beheved to wear magpie feathers. Another group of boys 

 dressed as buffaloes, suggested by their singer's sacred bundle. This 

 group was frequently called Mangy Buffaloes since the youngest 

 member of the club wore a poor robe to impersonate a mangy buffalo. 

 The people would remark that when the buffaloes came to the river 

 to drink, there was always among them a lean mangy buffalo calf 

 that had wintered badly. From time to time new societies for small 

 boys would appear. They would be invited to meet and sing in 

 imitation of their elders. Whenever they danced, spectators were 

 sure to appear to give them presents, to invite them in to eat, and to 

 urge them to follow the example of their elders so that they would 

 be brave and strike the enemy when they grew up. According to 

 informants, the number of these small informal societies varied from 

 time to time. Wolf Chief thought that there were probably a dozen 

 or more of these informal dancing groups. The number was always 

 changing according to the inclination of their leaders. 



Stone Hammer Society 



The Stone Hammer was the first organized society at Awatixa 

 and Hidatsa villages, and was bought by the young boys before 

 they were old enough to become Little Dogs. When the population 

 of the three Hidatsa villages and the Mandan of Mitutanku built 

 Fishhook Village, this was a popular society. There are frequent 

 references to the society and its traditional origin in the sacred myths 

 of Two Men and Charred Body. In these sacred myths relating to 

 events occurring near Painted Woods, Grandson is said to have 

 founded the society, drawing its emblems from his stock of sacred 

 objects. The principal symbol of the society was the carved stone 

 hammer which was designed by Grandson during mythological times. 

 The society was psychologically associated with the NaxpikE or 

 Sun Dance which had as its principal sacred object a stone ax carried 

 by the person impersonating Long Arm. 



Boys were 12 years and older when entering the society. When 

 the number of available boys was large enough to form a society of 

 30 or more members, the older people would encourage the boys to 

 meet and plan the purchase from those who had owned the society 

 for a few years. It was customary for young men when joining the 

 Stone Hammer society to go together as a group to the Sun Dance 



