Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 235 



Big Bull said, "I want to go out to see my six young men and to kill the enemy 

 and even things up. I want you to go as leader of the scouts to be out in front to 

 find the enemy." 



Four Bears agreed and they set the date to leave 4 days later. This time Guts 

 went along. Some did not hke it but they said nothing for Four Bears, the great- 

 est war chief of that time, was along. As they went along Four Bears served as 

 leader of the scouts, going out each morning before dayhght ahead of the main 

 party. At last they came to the bones of the six men where Big Bull cried for a 

 long time. Then they went on. Evenings they would stop to eat and sing the 

 war songs. Everyone had a good time. 



One morning Four Bears was out with his scouts. When the sun was up to the 

 height of a man, a small cloud came over and it rained. They came to a gumbo 

 flat and the buffalo wallows were full of water. This was a good sign, for Four 

 Bears' god was the medicine robe with a rainbow painted on it. He got this 

 sacred robe at the time he fasted beneath an oak tree in which a large hawk had 

 its nest after his brother had been killed by the Arikara several years before. 

 Four Bears opened his sacred bundle and unwrapped the robe; he placed it before 

 his scouts and asked someone to volunteer to make a mark on it. One young man 

 volunteered and asked what he should paint on it. Four Bears told the young 

 man to paint a rainbow on it. 



When the young man painted the rainbow on the robe. Four Bears looked at the 

 signs on the robe, thought of the shower that had just come because he had wanted 

 such a sign as an indication of the time when the enemy would be found, and said, 

 "I do not think we will be going very much farther for my gods have sent the 

 shower to tell me they are thinking of us just as they do in the village when the 

 weather is too dry for the corn. I think we will find what we are looking for 

 today." 



When they finished the painting of the robe. Four Bears put the robe around 

 his shoulders and they went on into hilly country. They discovered seven horse- 

 men and met them on top of a high hill. One enemy was dressed in a fine red 

 shirt and beautiful leggings; he was carrying a good gun. This enemy was killed 

 even though he was very brave; then the others ran away. Four Bear's party took 

 his fine clothing, his scalp, and gun. No Tears was first to strike the enemy. The 

 second honors went to a Mandan who was with the party. I forgot who hit third 

 and fourth. 



They returned to the main party, running in single file and howling like the 

 coyote. The main party put a robe down for them to jump over and they came 

 into camp howUng. Four Bears gave the scalp and other things taken from the 

 enemy to Big Bull. Four Bears announced, "The man we killed was the leader 

 when you lost the six men a year ago." 



Big Bull was even, for he had now succeeded in killing the one who had brought 

 bad luck to him a year before. Guts also got credit for he had lost his friend a 

 year before. 



Big Bull was one who fasted much. Formerly he had been lucky in stealing 

 horses and killing the enemy. Now he had overcome the handicap of losing six 

 men by fasting long and then going out to prove that his sacred powers had been 

 restored to him. His god was the Prairie Wolf that he saw in a dream but he 

 never put up the village ceremony for his bundle. Instead he made it up him- 

 self from what he had dreamed. 



The above narrative brings out some additional behavior patterns 

 not indicated by the Wolf Chief account. He speaks as a relative of 

 one who should have had good luck by virtue of the Earthnaming 



