210 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



specific ceremonial rites through purchase of an age-grade society 

 nor did they secure the right to participate in the "father's" cere- 

 monies. Instead, they received only such supernatural power and 

 assurances as the "fathers" offered them. 



Societies were cooperating groups. Whenever an individual 

 suffered misfortune, his society should help him. Men would help 

 each other in warfare, assist in the recovery of stolen horses, and 

 put up goods if one of their number was making important ceremonial 

 purchases. Women would assist a sick member with food and 

 clothing, and plant or care for her gardens. If a member died, the 

 society would supply food and gifts to the relatives of the deceased 

 for the funeral rites. On occasions when a member of the society 

 returned with war honors, the society would dance and put up goods 

 for the victory rites. Other men's groups, two societies removed, 

 would likewise assist on these occasions. 



The concept of group cooperation extended to the opposite sex 

 as well. Each men's society usually enlisted the assistance of a 

 women's society composed of individuals of the same age and known 

 as "friends." This "friend" relationship between societies of opposite 

 sex does not seem to be integrated into the traditions and sacred 

 myths of the tribe nor was there agreement among informants as 

 to "friend" groups of the opposite sex. This suggests that, due to 

 recent borrowing of the River, Goose, and White Buffalo Cow societies 

 from the Mandan, the Hidatsa had not established a fixed system 

 of correlations strengthened by custom. Informants all agreed that 

 the Stone Hammer and Skunk societies were "friends," but this may 

 be due to the fact that these societies are of Hidatsa origin and 

 of long traditional existence in the tribe. The Enemy Women are 

 usually associated with the Crazy Dogs but sometimes selected 

 the Lumpwoods as "friends," Likewise the Goose society some- 

 times had either the Crazy Dogs or the Lumpwoods as "friends." 

 But the selection was largely a matter of age. The women of the 

 Mandan Goose society had the Fox or the Black Mouths for their 

 "friends" because, as they said, this association was based on the 

 creation of these three societies by Good-Furred-Robe. The White 

 Buffalo Cow society was the "friend" of the Black Mouth society. 

 It seems probable that they formerly were also "friends" of the Bull 

 society, as with the Mandan for whom traditions and customs are 

 more definite, and that the Bull society was not associated with 

 them in later years chiefly because the Bulls died out early with the 

 Hidatsa. The record indicates that "friends" were established 

 societies of opposite sex based chiefly on relative age rather than on 

 any preconceived ideas of societies belonging together. 



