Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 209 



Although the secrecy of the sacred rites did not apply to the age- 

 grade societies, each society was clothed in a certain amount of 

 sacredness by virtue of individual membership in various ceremonies. 

 Each society was thought to possess collectively more supernatural 

 power than the preceding one because individuals continuously sought 

 supernatural powers until past middle age. Thus Stone Hammers 

 were not thought to have collectively very much supernatural power 

 since they had just begun their fasting, whereas members of the higher 

 societies had individually fasted a great deal, participated in many 

 ceremonies, and had given many feasts to older persons recognized 

 as holy men. 



The role of the age-grade system in providing a mechanism for the 

 acquisition of supernatural powers is indicated by the similarity of the 

 purchase to ceremonial purchases. With a few exceptions, the cere- 

 monial purchase was by a "son" from his "father." The same pattern 

 prevailed for age-grade purchases. Another feature of the ritualistic 

 quest of supernatm-al power was that of the relinquishment of one's 

 wife to the ceremonial "father." 



The Hidatsa do not think of the societies in themselves as sacred 

 and informants offered no objections to discussing details concerned 

 exclusively with the societies. Nevertheless, the Hidatsa think of a 

 society purchase as a mode of acquiring supernatural power. A 

 male secured this power during the purchase from individuals stand- 

 ing in a "father" relationship who prayed for their "sons," "walked" 

 with their sons' "wives," and received various goods. Although the 

 purchase was made as a group, it was essentially an individual affair 

 between a man and one or more "sons." Some men preferred to have 

 the same "father" for each successive society purchase whUe others 

 thought more supernatural powers would be obtained if different 

 "fathers" were selected for successive purchases. The concept of 

 age-grade purchases as organized activities designed to acquire super- 

 natural power is further indicated by the reluctance of a buyer to 

 select as "father" one who had suffered repeated misfortunes or had 

 a poor reputation. In fact, such unfortunate individuals frequently 

 relinquished their sacred bundles or completely dropped out of the 

 age-grade societies. Others took no part in age-grade activities until 

 they had overcome their bad luck by successes in warfare, rain- 

 making, or "calling the buffaloes." 



This feature of acquiring individual supernatural powers within 

 an organized group does not seem to be characteristic of the women's 

 groups. The societies for younger women were concerned exclusively 

 with warfare. Each of the Goose and White Buffalo Cow societies 

 collectively purchased rights in specific ceremonies: agricultural and 

 winter buffalo-calling rites. Men, on the other hand, did not acquire 



