Bowers] HID ATS A SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 237 



sister. Since a man brought the horses taken to his sisters whose 

 husband was the principal benefactor, so must he in return look after 

 his wife's brother even as he would protect his own wife. In fact, 

 the brother-in-law was often jokingly referred to as "my wife." 



The self-inflicted torture and behavior of Big Bull was normal and 

 customary. We find that members of his party think he is under- 

 taking too severe punishment and interfere, insisting that he wear 

 moccasins and a shirt. Here we have an example of interference by 

 his kin groups, his father's clansmen, and his society members. We 

 are told that he refused to go back into the village. Instead he fasted 

 and continued self-torture. Although Four Dancers did not say so, 

 in other comparable situations he and other informants emphasized 

 that Big Bull was watched by his society members. Seeing that he 

 was endangering his life, they went to the relatives of those killed and 

 asked them to take the pipe to Big Bull and beg him to terminate his 

 suffering. The "long period" of mourning, in contrast to the 4-day 

 period, was normal when one had "kicked the stone" as the Hidatsa 

 say of a leader who has returned from an unsuccessful mOitary ad- 

 venture. Big Bull dressed in mourning and fasted frequently for 1 

 year, during which time he received a new personal guardian spirit — 

 but Four Dancers knew few details about it for, in contrast to a sacred 

 bundle acquired by formal public purchase, personal supernatual ex- 

 periences tended to be forgotten. 



Four Dancers indicated the degree of cooperation that existed at 

 this time between the various earth lodge village groups living near 

 Knife River by relating how Big Bull walked through the other four 

 villages with his sacred pipe searching for some distinguished warrior 

 leader who was willing to serve as "chief of the scouts" on the con- 

 templated expedition to see the bodies of those who were killed a year 

 earlier. Having enlisted the most distinguished Mandan chief ^^ of 

 that time, the narrative from that point on is chiefly an account of 

 Four Bears' role. The situation in which Four Bears served under 

 another of recognized inferior status is not unusual, but it does throw 

 a great deal of light on the widely diffused character of the social con- 

 trol mechanism of an earth lodge vOlage population. 



Four Dancers had a considerable knowledge of Four Bear's sacred 

 bundle rites, for this bundle, although obtained after fasting beneath 

 an oak tree at the time his brother was killed by the Arikara, had 

 been assembled by his elders according to established tribal custom 

 and publicly transferred to Four Bears at a ceremonial feast. Four 

 Dancers knew little about Big Bull's bundle which had been made 

 up personally without the formality of a ceremonial feast. It was 



" When Four Bears died of smallpox, Guts married the widow and reared Four Bears' son, Charging 

 Eagle. 



