238 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



widely known that Four Bears' bundle was primarily connected with 

 rain calling; hence, when a shower fell, it was thought that the bundle 

 had not lost its "powers." Four Bears read the "signs" when the 

 robe was painted, just as Kidney did in the previous narrative, but 

 nowhere do we find reference to rites by Big Bull. 



Four Bears' scouts concentrated their attack on the best-dressed 

 enemy who was assumed to be the chief of the party. Still there 

 was no inclination to continue the engagement once one enemy had 

 been killed and struck coup upon. The manner of approaching the 

 main party after a successful engagement was the same as in the 

 Kidney account. (Note that the traditional accounts of the behavior 

 of the scouts when approaching the main party after striking the 

 enemy belong to the Hidatsa Wolf ceremony while the same procedure 

 was followed in this instance by the Mandan scout leader, even 

 though that tribe had no known comparable tribal Wolf rites.) 



The killing of one enemy was considered adequate compensation 

 for the six of their own men killed a year before; numbers apparently 

 did not count. The object of an expedition was to strike the enemy 

 without loss to one's own group. Four Dancers shows awareness of 

 the conflict of opinion in the vUlage as to whether military leadership 

 should be sanctioned by virtue of vision or vision plus formal purchase 

 of the bundle: 



It was strange that Guts had so much bad luck. While living at Knife River 

 he went out again with Three Coyotes as leader. Three Coyotes had the coyote 

 as his god. I think what one dreams is more important than what one buys 

 through his fathers, even though he dreams of it first, because after our group 

 moved to Fort Buford, we did not have many of the ceremonies that the others 

 had at Fishhook, still our men had good luck. Crow-Flies-High did not buy 

 his father's gods until he was old — still, he was a very successful leader. 



When Three Coyotes went out, there were 32 men in his party. Thej' did 

 not want Guts along but he went anyway. He was tall and strong; he liked 

 to go on these trips. They traveled to the southwest until they had passed the 

 Black Hills. All the time the scouts were out ahead looking around but the 

 enemy saw them before the scouts did. There was a large camp and soon the 

 enemy drove them into a washout. The enemy came in great numbers on horse- 

 back so that the Hidatsa were unable to run away. When the enemy attacked, 

 one Hidatsa took a red shirt out of a bundle and Guts said to him, "You should 

 not put it on or they will see you. I will put it on. I always seem to bring bad 

 luck. If they kill me they will think that I am a great chief. Then they may 

 stop fighting and let the rest of you go away." 



The Sioux did not start the fight right away. First they surrounded the 

 Hidatsa so they could not get away and then the women and children came along 

 bringing their tipis and setting them up nearby where they could watch the fight. 

 They must have sent messages out for soon another large group came up and 

 began setting up their tipis too. While this was going on, the Hidatsa painted 

 up and put on their sacred objects. The Sioux did likewise. The young Sioux 

 boys rode back and forth practicing with their horses, riding so that their bodies 

 did not show, stopping their horses quickly and pretending that they were fighting 



