220 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



on a horse; the bestowal of a new name and the privilege of making 

 a public display of giving away goods; the praises of the relatives; 

 the right to wear emblems, symbolic of military accomplishments, 

 on public occasions and particularly when visiting tribes came; or 

 the right to assume an important role in rites reserved for the brave. 

 Wolf Chief described the training of the young men as equivalent to 

 a wagon drawn along a deeply rutted road; there was no way to get 

 out of the road except by going forward in the same path as others 

 had done before — one could make no progress backing up, and the 

 depth of the ruts prevented one from taking a different course. A 

 young man, according to Wolf Chief, got along very well as long as 

 he performed in exactly the same way as his elders had; he was des- 

 tined to be very unhappy if he attempted to stray the least bit from 

 the beaten path. The only effective alternate was to become a 

 berdache. As a boy grew up, the culture provided him with many 

 opportunities to prepare for a military career ; there were the organized 

 footraces and military games supervised by the older men, horse 

 racing and contests on horseback, and shooting contests of various 

 sorts. 



The ritualistic aspects of warfare were highly developed. Young 

 people were encouraged to fast to secure supernatural powers so that 

 their lives would be saved when they went to war or when the village 

 was attacked. Supervision was the duty of the older members of 

 the clan, but it was from the father and the members of the father's clan 

 that one secured most of his ritualistic training. The older men 

 would endeavor to prevent unauthorized war or horse raiding parties 

 from leaving the village. The Hidatsa were realistic about military 

 training, for they mixed a bit of both ritualistic and technical training 

 and never confused the two. One ought to have a considerable 

 knowledge of both. The successful war leaders would watch the 

 young men at their games or at their fasting and encourage them to 

 make even greater efforts with a promise that they would soon be 

 ready for war, but the society frowned on efforts of the young men to 

 shortcut the established procedures. An older clan member would 

 often bring together a number of his "younger brothers" and send them 

 out to some spot a distance from the village. There, under the super- 

 vision of a recognized war leader, the young men fasted with the 

 promise that those who had successful dreams and fasted faithfully 

 would be taken on the next horse-stealing expedition. This super- 

 visor was paid for his services by the young men's households and 

 even by those young men who had secured appropriate visions. 

 In return for the goods, the "leader of the fast" prayed for the success 

 of the giver. 



